John Moore was born in 1970 in Dundalk, Ireland, a small town situated approximately 60 miles from the country's capital, Dublin. He attended a technical college in Dublin, where he studied filmmaking and, upon completing his studies, went on to direct and write a series of short films all produced in his native Ireland.
These include Jack's Bicycle (1990),which has been broadcast on Irish TV channel RTV on occasion. Moore then moved on to directing commercials and ultimately landed the job to create the launch advertisement for the Sega Dreamcast. The advertisement was so impressive that Twentieth Century Fox offered him the job to direct the film Behind Enemy Lines (2001),a $40 million action film centered around the conflict in Bosnia. The film starred Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson.
While a modest box-office success, the film received average reviews from critics, who varied in their opinions. In later years, Moore himself admitted that perhaps his approach had been too lightweight, and a conflict of that scope required a more deep and thoughtful motion picture. On the set of Behind Enemy Lines (2001),Moore was nearly killed during an action sequence and had his life saved in the last moment by a stuntman who dragged him from harm's way.
