Martin Campbell on AllMovie

New Zealand-born film director Martin Campbell started his career in the mid-'70s churning out a handful of adult-minded films, with titles like The Sex Thief and Eskimo Nell. His sense of style caught the eye of Hollywood, and eventually Campbell found himself helming thrillers like Criminal Law and Defenseless. In the mid-'90s, his career skyrocketed after being assigned the director's chair for GoldenEye, the first Bond film to star Pierce Brosnan as the beloved super-spy. The film was a box-office success, and received the strongest reviews of any Bond film in quite some time, leading directly to the job of directing the big-budget summer spectacle The Mask of Zorro, an assignment he enjoyed enough to return for the sequel a few years later. Campbell once again introduced the world to a new James Bond in 2006 as the director of Daniel Craig's first film in the series, Casino Royale. Again, the film was lavished with huge international box-office success, and strong reviews from many critics who had grown tired of the series.