Continuing his relationship with Paramount Pictures, Pearce was tapped to pen The Wedding Sting, a film based on The Atlantic article of the same title. Written by Jeff Maysh, the article tells the story of how the 1990 Flint police department devised a sting to put on a fake wedding that would lure the city's drug dealers to a single location.
Between 2000 and 2004, Pearce was the lead singer and Guitarist in the renowned London alt-country band Woodchuck, among various other music projects.
In 2007, Pearce wrote and directed The Musical Storytellers Ginger and Black, a TV short for E4 about a musical double act whose songs aren't appropriate for the kids they perform to.
In 2009, ABC commissioned Pearce to create a pilot of No Heroics for the US. Pearce was joined by Will & Grace Writer Jeff Greenstein. In March it was announced that Freddie Prinze Jr. had been cast as Infinitum, the A-list superhero, and Paul Campbell, Eliza Coupe, Tom Riley and Arielle Kebbel are playing the B-listers. Josh Gad was also cast as Horse Force, the groups former classmate from Superhero College. The network subsequently declined to pick the pilot up to full series.
In 2010, Pearce’s work moved to Hollywood when Marvel hired him to adapt Runaways for the big screen, based on the comic book of the same name by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona. Pearce was tasked with writing a new script. Development on the film was put on hold the following October, and Pearce explained in September 2013 that the Runaways film had been shelved due to the success of The Avengers. Years later, Runaways would eventually be released as a web television series created for Hulu by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage.
Pearce continued his work as a Writer on a wide array of projects. It was announced that Pearce would pen Paramount's adaption of the DC Comics title The Mighty. Pearce also completed an uncredited rewrite on Guillermo del Toro's sci-fi action thriller Pacific Rim. In October 2011, he was commissioned to write the script for a third film in the Sherlock Holmes film series starring Robert Downey, Jr. The following year Pearce was tapped to Polish the script for Legendary Pictures' Godzilla reboot.
In March 2012, Pearce directed the music video for the song "Rearrange" by Miles Kane. By March 2018, it had received over 3.9 million YouTube views. Pearce went on to direct a video for the Father John Misty song “The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment.”
In August 2013 Paramount Pictures announced the fifth Mission: Impossible film, from a script penned by Pearce. After developing the script with the Director, Christopher McQuarrie, Pearce received a story by credit for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. The film grossed $195 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $487.7 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $682.7 million. It received critical acclaim, securing a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93% based on 291 reviews and an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation continues the franchise's thrilling resurgence—and proves that Tom Cruise remains an action star without equal."
All Hail the King was released on the digital download release of Thor: The Dark World on February 4, 2014, and on February 25, 2014 for the Blu-ray release. IGN's Cliff Wheatley gave All Hail the King a 9.4 out of 10. He said that it's "a return to the loveable personality of the hapless Trevor and a step forward for the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. It has its twists that should satisfy both lovers and haters of Trevor Slattery. But it’s the approach that Pearce takes with the material, from the kung-fu movie style credit sequences to the light-hearted tone that takes a sudden and jarring turn."
Pearce then partnered with Jason Segel to create the concept for a third Lego Movie spin-off, titled The Billion Brick Race. In March 2015, Warner Bros. announced that the film was in development with its animation feature arm, Warner Animation Group. Pearce and Segel were initially signed on to co-direct and write the film, however both subsequently stepped away from those roles. The film is scheduled to be released sometime in 2019.
Development on the project was first announced in November 2016, when two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster agreed to star in the film. The genre-bending script attracted a strong ensemble cast, including Sterling K. Brown, Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Jenny Slate, Charlie Day, Zachary Quinto, Brian Tyree Henry and Kenneth Choi. Filming began in Los Angeles in May 2017.
In 2017, Pearce made his feature directorial debut with Hotel Artemis, a Futuristic thriller set in a secret, members-only hospital for Criminals.
Pearce made his feature directorial debut with Hotel Artemis. The film, also written by Pearce, is a Futuristic thriller, set in a secret, members-only hospital for Criminals. After reading Pearce’s script, Adam Siegel and Marc Platt of Marc Platt Productions came on board to produce. Soon after Stephen and Simon Cornwell from The Ink Factory attached themselves to produce and Finance the project. Lionsgate acquired the international distribution rights for the film at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival, with WME Global dealing with the distribution rights for the North American release.
