9 Milestones in the Evolution of J.J. Abrams

Alias (2001)

Shortly after premiering Felicity, Abrams formed his production company Bad Robot, wrote and produced the enjoyable Joy Ride (starring Paul Walker and Steve Zahn), and then tackled his biggest project yet. As sole Alias creator, Abrams oversaw the Jennifer Garner spy thriller series for five seasons, during which he would earn his first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series.

Lost (2004)

The writer/director/producer's career continued ascending when he and Damon Lindelof created Lost (along with Jeffrey Lieber, who wrote the original treatment for the series, but was replaced), the epic ensemble plane crash drama that would span six seasons on ABC, and inspire one of the most loyal fan bases in television history. Abrams directed the two-part pilot, which also happened to be the most expensive pilot ever produced. In 2005, Abrams won his first and only Emmy awards (so far) for Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Drama Series.

Mission Impossible III (2006)

After David Fincher dropped out of the third Mission Impossible installment, Paramount Pictures offered Abrams his first feature directing gig. Abrams cast his Felicity star Keri Russell opposite Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan and Philip Seymour Hoffman in the $150 million-budgeted thriller. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and grossed nearly $400 million worldwide.

Star Trek (2009)

After producing Matt Reeves' 2008 disaster-monster movie Cloverfield and creating the sci-fi series Fringe for Fox, Abrams returned to directing with Paramount's big screen reboot of Star Trek. Written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who helped create Fringe), Abrams also produced the project alongside Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof. The film -- which starred Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban -- earned Abrams positive reviews and became the most successful film based on Gene Roddenberry's franchise.

Super 8 (2011)

After weathering a rare failure last year when NBC canceled his latest spy series Undercovers, Abrams returns to the box office this weekend with the eagerly-anticipated and vastly-secretive sci-fi picture Super 8. This is the first original Abrams project produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and has already been compared numerous times to E.T.. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Whether it will perform as well as those childhood classics at the box office, we will know next week. In the meantime, it is safe to assume that Abrams' career will continue to live long and prosper. (Groan! But seriously...)

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