Shane Carruth  Shane Carruth (born January 1, 1972) is an American former filmmaker, screenwriter, composer, and actor. He is the writer, director, and co-star of the prize-winning science-fiction film "Primer" (2004), which was his debut feature. His second film, "Upstream Color" (2013), was an experimental science-fiction film which he wrote, directed, produced, edited, designed, and starred in. He also composed the scores for both films. In recognition of Carruth's idiosyncratic and, at times, bizarre filmmaking technique, director Steven Soderbergh told "Entertainment Weekly", "I view Shane as the illegitimate offspring of David Lynch and James Cameron." Carruth was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on January 1, 1972. He attended Stephen F. Austin State University as a Mathematics major. Before becoming a filmmaker, he worked as a developer of flight-simulation software. For his independent film "Primer", Carruth wrote, directed, produced, and performed one of the two main roles; he also composed the score. The film was honored at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival with the Grand Jury Prize and the Alfred P. Sloan Award. Carruth, a former software engineer with an undergraduate degree in mathematics, used his technical knowledge extensively on the project. On January 21, 2013, Carruth premiered his film "Upstream Color" at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category. Carruth, Johnny Marshall, and Pete Horner won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Sound Design for the film. Keith Kimbell wrote that it was the "most anticipated (and most difficult to describe) film in competition", and "most critics couldn't stop talking about it". The film was released via VHX on April 5, 2013. Some of Carruth's music from "Upstream Color" was featured in the 2016 documentary "Tickled". In 2009, David Sullivan, one of the leads in "Primer", tweeted that "Shane Carruth's next project, "A Topiary", is in the early stages of pre-production". Filmmaker Rian Johnson tweeted that it would feature a "mind-blowing sci-fi script." In 2010, several news sources reported that "A Topiary" was in the works and that the script had been written. There was already a website for the movie which, according to Carruth in an interview to io9, "The website for now is just a place mark as financing has yet to be completed.