His work doing the first three Korn music videos led to a stint with Cypress Hill, and afterwards McG became highly sought with over fifty music video credits such as Sublime's "Santeria", Smash Mouth's "All Star", and The Offspring's "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)", along with documentaries on Korn and Sugar Ray.

[9] In February 2002, Jon Peters and Lorenzo di Bonaventura attached him onto the fifth installment in the Superman film series that was in development hell, thus putting his previous projects on hold.

McG and Peters hired J. J. Abrams to pen a new script for the film entitled Superman: Flyby, which was submitted in July 2002.

[11] Meanwhile, he developed and co-created a television series with John McNamara called Fastlane (2002), which was eventually canceled after one season due to the high costs of each episode.

[13][14] McG was set to direct the pilot, but because of scheduling conflicts with Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, he was replaced by Doug Liman.

[7] Shortly thereafter, Sony extended its first-look production deal with Wonderland Sound and Vision for an additional three years, with Hot Wheels, Airshow, and Radiant on their film slate.

[18] Warner Bros., still satisfied with his bankability, re-hired him to direct Superman: Flyby in April 2003 after Ratner had dropped out due to casting and pre-production difficulties.

During his tenure, McG and the producers spent more than $15 million planning storyboards, concept art, and locations, as well as having script revisions and the film completely pre-visualized.

[12] The following year saw Warner Bros. allowing McG, who "looked to improve as a storyteller and wanted to get more substantial material," to direct We Are Marshall (2006), a sports drama film.

[21] Along with Adam Brody, McG was next set to produce a remake of the cult comedy hit Revenge of the Nerds, planned for a release in 2007 with a budget of $12.5 million and filming to begin at Emory University.

This led the film to be shot at Agnes Scott College for two weeks, but producers Fox Atomic shelved it due to the "lack of wide open space Emory's campus would have afforded them and [the fact that] winter was fast approaching making the prospect of shooting the movie's many outdoor scenes problematic.

[26] The former, about an aberrant father who must confront his childhood tormentor to rid of his fear of monsters and the dark, was arranged to start in November 2007, but McG dropped out and was later replaced by Mike Mitchell;[27] the untitled spy project was rewritten by Phil Alden Robinson and was to be produced by Basil Iwanyk;[28] Yucatan, based on Steve McQueen's leftover notes and storyboards of his passion project, is an epic adventurous heist film, though Warner Bros. has now placed the project under Team Downey;[29] and Maintenance was a film adaptation of Jim Massey's comic book series of the same name about two janitors who work for a weapons manufacturer that supply to the world's most evil super villains, but the rights of the film have moved to DreamWorks Animation.

[35] Although he promised fans that he would bring back credibility to the saga, with the casting of Christian Bale and a personal talk with James Cameron,[36] the film, released on May 21, 2009, in the United States and Canada, received mixed reviews.

[37] In promotion of Terminator Salvation, at a Wondercon event, McG highlighted actress Moon Bloodgood, and asked the audience, “Do you want to see Moon’s boobs?”[38] [39] Following Terminator Salvation, he was expected to direct a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for Disney, for which he was interested in casting Sam Worthington for Captain Nemo.

[40][41] However, after spending nearly $10 million on pre-production work, Walt Disney Studios' movie chief Rich Ross put the project on hold indefinitely due to creative concerns, and McG is no longer attached.

[46] Since then, he has been in negotiations for the directing duties for Universal Pictures' Oujia (a film based on the Hasbro board game of the same name,[47]) and has been attached to Lorene Scafaria's pitch based on a Rolling Stone article about the true life events of Esther Reed named "The Girl Who Conned the Ivy League," along with Amanda Seyfried,[48] and a high-profile untitled space adventure project written by David Callaham for 20th Century Fox.

[52] McG has also delved into comics with Wonderland set to publish the original Haunted City, written by Chap Taylor, that will expand into a feature film, which he plans to direct, a television show, and a video game.

[1][63] For his television work, Wonderland Sound & Vision sold three pilots for the 09–10 season: Thunder Road, a reality show described as an automobile version of Wipeout, for CBS;[64] Limelight, a contemporary version of Fame based on the life of Pharrell Williams, who was also executive producing, for ABC;[65] and Human Target, loosely based on the comic book of the same name about a bodyguard hired to protect his clients, for Fox.

[68] Since 2009, McG and Wonderland Sound & Vision have been lined up to produce numerous shows for a variety of networks: the Josh Friedlander-developed Camp Morningwood;[69] Our Show, an NBC comedy project co-developed with Larry Charles about "a disparate group of people who begin making episodes of their favorite sci-fi show after it ends";[70] the Danny Comden-penned The Intruders;[71] an untitled space Western conceived by Scott Rosenbaum;[72] and Clive Barker's Hotel for ABC, about "a series of ghoulish incidents at a haunted hotel.

[77] Takashi Murakami and McG directed short Akihabara Majokko Princess, where Kirsten Dunst sings a cover of The Vapors' 1980 song "Turning Japanese".

[84] In 2015, McG directed the horror comedy film The Babysitter starring Samara Weaving, Judah Lewis, Hana Mae Lee, Robbie Amell and Bella Thorne.

"It was easier to say it was a fear of flying because, while it might make me look weak, people can understand it and I don't have to say, 'Well, I'm kind of crazy,'" he told Fast Company.