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A music video sent in a pizza box and a chance meeting with Drew Barrymore catapulted the director of one of Hollywood's most anticipated-blockbusters to where he is on Tuesday.
Proving the road to success in Tinsel Town is definitely not just down to on-paper qualifications, McG, director of next year's Terminator Salvation, tells tabloid! the secret of his success - and it's not as you may first expect.
"Directors like Spike Lee were my inspiration and I just kept going. I was always creative with it though. Once I sent a music video to a producer who was pretty overweight in a pizza box because I thought he'd appreciate the gesture."
As all good rags-to-riches tales go, it was bumping into actress Drew Barrymore that really got McG on the Hollywood radar.
The celebrated director, most famous for Charlie's Angels and its sequel Full Throttle, said: "I met Drew and she saw something in me and asked me to direct Charlie's Angels." At the time, McG had shot music videos and commercials, but not movies.
Questioning my ability
"It was hard because I had people questioning my ability - even after thousands and thousands of hours of shooting film.
"I'd shot on a mountain, in the ocean and dealt with actors who wouldn't come out of their trailer - I'd seen it all and knew I was better prepared than any new director who had never shot a second, but had the title ‘film director'."
Barrymore wanted to make an action film with girls, for girls and wanted McG to pull it off - which he did and more.
"But not everything came together. I was rather ironically thrown off the Superman movie because I was afraid of flying. Things could have been different me but I accept the path I have taken."
It was also McG's fear of flying became the catalyst for We Are Marshall - a true story about a plane crash which wipes out a community football team in America starring Matthew McConaughey, who's current starring role is in a Dolce&Gabbana fragrance ad.
"I have to admit I've walked around the malls here in Abu Dhabi and found it odd to see our Texan boy advertising high-end Italian fashion. But whatever works, hey."
But the path to a $4,000,000 (Dh14 million) pay cheque for Charlie's Angels Full Throttle wasn't exactly an easy ride.
"It could have all been so different. I was going to be a doctor because my dad was a doctor and it seemed like the natural path. But I quickly realised the error of my ways and my passion for film and music and went with my heart."
In the early days it was the world of pop stars and music videos which really "did it" for McG, working with artists including Gwen Stefani, Sublime and Cypress Hill.
"I had a friend who was into cinematography and just went for it but before that I was a lowly celebrity ‘snapper'.
McG has a list of television credits as long as his arm including The OC, Fastlane, Supernatural and Pussycat Dolls: Search for the Next Doll.
The Terminator returns: man or machine?
As technology takes over the world, Terminator: Salvation director McG says people must understand the reality of making films in a world where the role of technology, artificial intelligence and violence go hand in hand.
He added it's about time the people realised artificial intelligence plays such a major role in the everyday world, making it almost impossible to distinguish between man and machine.
"The next Terminator explores something altogether new and questions at what point humanity ends and technology begins. Artificial intelligence is something which surrounds our everyday life now and we need to accept that this in turn means a completely alternative way of life.
"Terminator: Salvation asks new questions about the fighter and gives him a more human perspective. It eventually explores him as a human and the emotions which go with that."
The debate about how much violence is acceptable on screen will go on for years – I am in no doubt."
Violence
Many argue violence through film provides an outlet for viewers - while others counter argue it encourage violence among viewers.
"What we have to admit to ourselves is that life and times are changing. That in turn creates a sense of indestructibility.
"Everything down to the ABS brakes in an everyday car is artificial intelligence. We are living among it in every sense.
"As a director I think it's important to explore these changes through film but I also realise I have a responsibility as a director to not take things too far."
In Abu Dhabi for The Circle Conference, a film initiative to help grow talent in the region, McG, short for McGinty, his mother's maiden name, showed an exclusive preview of the film's trailer having finished filming less than three weeks ago.
"It has been a bit of a rush to be honest but I wanted something of worth to bring for the people of this region. It's important for them to get a glimpse of what we do – and this is what we do."
He has a B.A in Psychology from the University of California-Irvine and won Billboard's Pop Video of the Year Award for Smashmouth's Walking on the Sun in 1997.
In the same year he also picked up the Pop Video of the Year Award from the Music Video Production Association for Sugar Ray's Fly, which he also co-wrote.
So what advice would he give to someone starting out?
"Tell stories from the heart. There are certain formulas which work no matter what. Love knows no bounds and triumph will always prevail over tragedy. These are the stories which translate the world over.
"I believe in the magic of the movies. People won't stop watching movies they will only change which screen they watch them on."
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