After graduating Cal-State Sacramento, he became a producer at UPN 31 in Sacramento where he won Producer of the Year at the Promax Television Convention a mere six months into the job. Thanks to his win and the mounds of free production equipment at his disposal, Carnahan took the liberty of making his first feature film – despite a strict company policy forbidding the use of said equipment for personal projects. The result of his drive to “[refuse] to punch someone else’s clock” was “Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane” – a comic noir thriller about two down-on-their-luck used car salesmen (Carnahan and Dan Leis) about to earn $250,000 if they allow a cherry red convertible supposedly laden with explosives to be parked in their lot. Hilarity and hijinks ensue when the pair decide to break the rules. Carnahan’s fast-paced, Tarantino-esque gangster flick was shot in 13 days over the course of six months using a 16mm camera and no music – he no money to obtain the rights. Nonetheless, Carnahan’s Hollywood calling card earned him a spot in several film festivals, including the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, giving him the recognition he craved.
Though “Octane” was only released in seven theaters, netting just over $15,000 at the box office, Carnahan caught the attention from Hollywood bigwigs. He began shopping the script for what became “Narc” (2002), a character-driven cop thriller that originated as a short film he made when he was a student. But he was unable to drum up any support for the project, hearing over and over that it was nothing more than an episode of “NYPD Blue.” He did, however, get the script into the hands of Ray Liotta, both of whom were represented by Endeavor. Liotta loved the script and attached himself to star as a volatile Detroit detective on the hunt for his partner’s murderer. Again, Carnahan had tough luck finding any takers, spending another year searching for money. Finally he found financing through Cutting Edge Entertainment, an unknown independent production entity with few credits. Halfway through the shoot, however, Carnahan saw the funding dry up. New financiers were found – some 17 producers were credited when all was said and done – and the film was finished. After making the festival rounds, “Narc” attracted attention from such industry heavies as Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise. The critical reception for “Narc” during its December 2002 release was strong, earning both film and director awards-season buzz. But the nominations never materialized sans three Independent Spirit Awards nods in 2003, including for Best Director and Best Screenplay.
On the strength of “Narc,” Carnahan entertained several offers to direct bigger, but not necessarily better projects. He attached himself to direct Ford in a crime thriller called “A Walk Among Tombstones,” but the project fell through and languished in development hell. Carnahan was then handpicked by Cruise to helm the blockbuster “Mission: Impossible III” (2006), but the two failed to agree on the creative direction of the material – Carnahan wanted a darker tale about private armies in Africa, while Cruise wanted more thrills and spills. The two eventually parted ways. Returning to his low-budget, crime-noir roots, Carnahan directed “Smokin’ Aces” (2006), a hyper-violent caper comedy about a sleazy Las Vegas magician (Jeremy Piven) who agrees to turn state’s evidence against the mob, unleashing a motley crew of assassins out to claim the $1 million bounty on his head. Among the killers were two hot, but deadly vixens (Alicia Keys and Taraji P. Henson), three dimwitted thugs (Ben Affleck, Peter Berg and Martin Henderson) and the notorious Tremor Brothers (Chris Pine and Kevin Durand).
Though his most successful film to date in terms of box office, “Smokin’ Aces” attracted a large contingent of critical detractors who declared the movie to be too derivative of Quentin Tarantino’s darkly comic-noir oeuvre. Not one to take such criticism with a grain of salt, the boisterous Carnahan shot back, saying that his film was an allegory for how misinformation can lead to violence, a lesson he took from the weapons of mass production propaganda preceding the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Meanwhile, Carnahan was set to direct the long-awaited adaptation of James Ellroy’s “White Jazz,” the fourth installment to his famed L.A. Quartet about a murderously corrupt Los Angeles police detective battling his inner demons while the feds investigate him. Also on his slate, a remake of Otto Preminger’s 1965 thriller “Bunny Lake is Missing” with Reese Witherspoon to star as a woman who claims her daughter is missing, though a weary police inspector believes the child might not even be real.