William Eubank Bio, Age, Wife, Family, Salary, Director The Signal Underwater 2026

William Eubank is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer whose career moved from eight years at Panavision — repairing and testing the cameras that shot the first major digital Hollywood features — to writing and directing his own science-fiction films on modest budgets that punched far above their weight. He is best known for The Signal (2014), a Sundance premiere that became a cult favourite, and for Underwater (2020), a studio horror-thriller starring Kristen Stewart. In 2026 his next feature, Ghost Soldier, a military action thriller starring Jim Caviezel, is scheduled for November release by Sony/Columbia Pictures.

Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1982, and raised in the Santa Ynez Valley, he grew up with a grandfather who was a U.S. Navy cinematographer and a father who worked in fine art and the State Department’s Office of Fine Arts. That blend — technical precision from the camera side, visual storytelling from the art side — is visible in every frame he shoots. This biography covers his Massachusetts birth, his California upbringing, his Panavision apprenticeship, his three features to date, his family and his work in 2026.

Quick Facts

Related Names: William Eubank, Carlyle Eubank (brother, screenwriter), David Frigerio (co-writer), Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke, Laurence Fishburne, Kristen Stewart, Jessica Henwick, Jim Caviezel, Tom DeLonge (Angels & Airwaves).

Early Life & Education

William Eubank was born on November 15, 1982, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. His father, Carlyle Eubank II, is a fine art consultant, a former Christie’s representative and an adviser to the Office of Fine Arts at the U.S. State Department. His mother, Patricia Reeder Eubank, is a children’s book author and illustrator. He is the second of four children — one older sister, two younger brothers — and the family moved to the Santa Ynez Valley, a noted wine-producing region north of Los Angeles, where he grew up.

Two influences shaped him early. His grandfather was a U.S. Navy cinematographer, and the stories he told — one involved operating a camera while flying underneath the Golden Gate Bridge — made Eubank want to either attend the United States Naval Academy or become a cinematographer. He chose the latter. He was also involved in Scouting and, like Steven Spielberg and David Lynch, is an Eagle Scout — a detail that says something about the kind of meticulous, self-reliant problem-solving that later defined his filmmaking.

A formative moment came when he watched Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974) as a boy. He did not realise it was a period piece set in 1937; he assumed it had been made in 1937. When he discovered it had been made almost four decades after the era it depicted, he understood something fundamental about cinema: it can make the past feel like the present, and the present feel like anything you want it to be.

He attended UCLA for two years, taking cosmology classes that he later cited as an influence on his films’ ideas, but he did not get into the film programme. Impatient, he dropped out and went to work at Panavision Woodland Hills as a camera repair technician and digital imaging technician. That decision — trading a film-school rejection for a job at the company that made the cameras — became the real education.

Career Journey

Panavision: The Accidental Film School

Eubank spent eight years at Panavision, becoming a seasoned employee who was occasionally given permission to borrow cameras and lenses for his own tests. When the company eventually tabulated what he had used, they realised he had been given the loan of what would have been multiple millions of dollars in rental fees. He describes his time there as “serving as my film school” — and the industry has largely agreed.

At Panavision he was sent to the sets of films like Collateral and Superman Returns. He took a notebook, drew diagrams of where the gaffer had placed every light, and then went to see the finished film and compared the on-screen results to his journals. That discipline — treating lighting as data, not magic — is why his own films look more expensive than their budgets.

His technical specialty was the transition to digital. He worked on the Panavised CineAlta F900, the camera that shot Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones (2002), the first major feature released that was shot entirely on a 24p digital camera. He convinced Blackmagic Design to send him an early SDI capture card, stacked 14 hard drives on a Power Mac G4, drilled a hole in the case for the eSATA cables, and built an NLE system that could directly capture the F900’s full HD 1080p footage. When it worked, his co-workers agreed a shift was occurring. He was at the centre of it.

Love and the Angels & Airwaves Connection

In 2007 Eubank was approached by Tom DeLonge of Angels & Airwaves to create material for the band. He directed several music videos, including the single “Surrender,” and then wrote and directed the feature film Love, commissioned and produced by the band. The film was inspired by Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line and asks, in Eubank’s words, “What are we, as human beings, going to leave behind when we cease to exist one day…”

Eubank spent four years on Love. He served as the film’s production designer and constructed both the International Space Station and Civil War battleground sets in his parents’ backyard over nine months. He based the ISS set on NASA photography and skateboard ramp designs, and the battle staging on Civil War paintings. The shoot was interrupted by weather, frogs and a neighbour’s weedwhacker. The film premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2011, screened at eleven other festivals, and won him Best Director at the Athens International Film Festival.

The Signal: Sundance and a Cult Following

While Love was still being edited, Eubank began writing a second screenplay, The Signal. He collaborated with fellow screenwriters David Frigerio and his brother Carlyle Eubank. His inspirations were Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, and thematically the films Pi, Moon and Cube. Visually he drew from Spaghetti Westerns, Man on Fire and Hanna. He chose 2.39:1 anamorphic because “no other ratio allows you to stare right into an actor’s eyes; the performance can erupt.”

The film stars Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke and Laurence Fishburne, and follows three college students on a road trip who encounter a mysterious area known as Area 51. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Focus Features. Its pacing — slow, free, road-movie opening, then a sudden, violent expansion of scope — is exactly what Eubank set out to achieve. The film developed a cult following and established him as a director who could deliver high-concept science fiction on an independent budget.

Underwater: Studio Horror at Scale

His third feature, Underwater (2020), was a 20th Century Fox studio production starring Kristen Stewart, Jessica Henwick and Vincent Cassel — a deep-sea survival thriller set at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The budget was larger, the schedule tighter, and the visual effects pipeline far more complex than anything he had managed before. He shot it with a deliberate, physical aesthetic: practical sets, real water, lighting designed to feel like the crushing pressure of seven miles of ocean. It was not a critical darling on release, but it demonstrated he could operate inside the studio system without losing his visual signature.

Ghost Soldier: The 2026 Release

In 2026 Eubank’s next feature, Ghost Soldier, is scheduled for November 6 theatrical release by Sony/Columbia Pictures. The film stars Jim Caviezel, Olivia Thirlby, Beau Knapp, Garret Dillahunt and Shea Whigham. It is written by Chris Papasadero and directed by Eubank; Brandon Roberts (who scored Eubank’s Land of Bad and co-scored Underwater with Marco Beltrami) is scoring it. The plot: a weapon systems engineer and former Green Beret protects his Wyoming neighbours against a ruthless corporation threatening their rural community — a Western in modern dress, which is exactly the genre territory Eubank has been circling since The Signal.

Career Stats

• Camera repair / digital imaging technician, Panavision Woodland Hills (eight years)
• Director, cinematographer, production designer, Love (2011)
• Director and co-writer, The Signal (2014) — Sundance premiere, Focus Features release
• Second unit director, Broken City (2013)
• Director, Underwater (2020) — 20th Century Fox
• Director, Ghost Soldier (2026) — Sony/Columbia Pictures, November 6 release
• Eagle Scout; attended UCLA cosmology classes; no formal film degree

Personal Life

• Marital Status: Private.
• Spouse: Not publicly disclosed.
• Children: Private.
• Home: Los Angeles area, California.
• Hometown: Santa Ynez Valley, California.
• Family: Father Carlyle Eubank II (fine art consultant, former Christie’s, State Department adviser); mother Patricia Reeder Eubank (children’s book author/illustrator); one older sister, two younger brothers (including Carlyle Eubank, screenwriter); grandfather U.S. Navy cinematographer.

Dating History and Affairs

Eubank has not discussed his personal relationships publicly. His interviews focus on cameras, lighting, cosmology, practical effects and the craft of directing. No spouse or partner has been identified in press coverage, and there is no reporting on his dating history.

That reticence is consistent with a director who built his career on technical problem-solving rather than self-promotion. His public persona is the person who drilled a hole in a Power Mac G4 to build a capture system — not the person who attends premieres.

Controversies

No personal scandal, ethics complaint or legal dispute involving Eubank has been reported. The only professional debate around his work is the ordinary critical disagreement: Underwater divided critics, some of whom found its creature-feature elements at odds with its serious tone. That is a creative disagreement, not a controversy.

The main inaccuracy in his online record is the persistent claim that he “dropped out of film school.” He never got into the UCLA film programme; he took cosmology classes at UCLA for two years, then left to work at Panavision. The distinction matters: he did not abandon a film education — he chose a technical apprenticeship that served him better.

Awards & Achievements

• Best Director, Athens International Film Festival (2011) for Love
• Sundance Film Festival premiere, The Signal (2014)
• Built a working 14-drive NLE capture system for the Panavised F900 — a technical milestone in the digital cinema transition
• The Signal developed a lasting cult following and is taught in some independent filmmaking courses as a case study in high-concept/low-budget sci-fi
• Directed Underwater (2020), a studio feature with Kristen Stewart
• Ghost Soldier scheduled for November 2026 wide release by Sony/Columbia Pictures

Physical Statistics

• Height: Private
• Weight: Private
• Hair Color: Brown
• Eye Color: Private
• Build: Average

Quotes

No other ratio allows you to stare right into an actor’s eyes; the performance can erupt.

William Eubank, on choosing 2.39:1 anamorphic for The Signal

I wanted the opening to feel super free, and like a road movie… so that by the time I was going to ramp things up both emotionally and technically… it really was going to slowly burn until it got to that sort of firecracker end.

William Eubank, on pacing The Signal

I owe my entire career to those guys.

William Eubank, on his Panavision colleagues

Favorites

• Camera: Panavision — he spent eight years there and still speaks of it as his film school
• Format: 2.39:1 anamorphic
• Genre: Science fiction with a Western’s moral clarity
• Inspiration: Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Terrence Malick
• Set piece: Building the ISS set in his parents’ backyard from NASA photos and skateboard ramp designs

Earnings

William Eubank’s salary and net worth are not publicly disclosed. He has directed one independent feature (Love), one independent-to-studio feature (The Signal), one studio feature (Underwater) and has a studio feature (Ghost Soldier) in post-production for 2026 release. Director fees at that trajectory are not public, and the figures on biography sites are estimates.

What is public is the trajectory: Panavision technician to Sundance director to studio director to a November 2026 wide release. That progression typically comes with rising fees and backend participation, but no verified number exists.

Interesting Facts

• He is an Eagle Scout, like Steven Spielberg and David Lynch.
• He built a working digital capture system for the F900 by stacking 14 hard drives and drilling a Power Mac G4.
• He built the International Space Station set for Love in his parents’ backyard using NASA photography and skateboard ramp designs.
• He attended UCLA cosmology classes but did not get into the film programme.
• His brother Carlyle Eubank is a screenwriter and co-wrote The Signal.
• His grandfather was a U.S. Navy cinematographer who flew cameras under the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Ghost Soldier (2026) stars Jim Caviezel and is his first outright action-thriller.

Did You Know Already?

• He has no formal film degree — his film school was Panavision.
• He drilled a hole in a Power Mac G4 to build an NLE system.
• The Signal was shot in 2.39:1 anamorphic with a LowCon filter left on for the entire shoot.
• He directed second unit on Broken City (2013) before The Signal.
• His father worked for the State Department’s Office of Fine Arts.
• He is 43 in 2026 (born November 15, 1982).

Social Media Links

• IMDb: William Eubank
• Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Eubank
• Ghost Soldier (2026) — IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt38686316

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

William Eubank turned a camera-repair job at Panavision into a directing career that has now reached a November studio release with Jim Caviezel — and he did it by treating light as data, sets as engineering problems and science fiction as a way to ask what we leave behind. If you found this biography helpful, please share it with fellow filmmaking and science fiction fans!