Director John Singleton never knows where the idea for his next directing project will come from, but in the case of his latest action thriller, Abduction, he had to look no further than his family for inspiration.

“I only knew Taylor Lautner because my daughter’s a big fan, and is a huge Twilight fan. She was like, ‘Dad, you’ve got to do this movie, Dad, you’ve got to do this movie!” Singleton told BET.com.

Abduction tells the story of a young man (Lautner) who discovers his current life is a lie and that as a baby, he was a missing person. And soon after meeting the Twilight star, Singleton said it became inspiring for him as a director to help shape and mentor the heartthrob’s white-hot career.

“It was the whole idea of being able to do an action-adventure picture with Taylor Lautner, and be able to flip him in a way that people have never seen him before,” says the director who launched rapper Ice Cube’s career in film. “I wanted take Taylor under my tutelage and show there are other people in history that have been in his position. And he’s got to take advantage of his career and path and be knowledgeable about how to guide that in the right way. He’s a real cool dude.  Abduction is gonna be a whole other take on him.”

Abduction opens today in theaters nationwide.

(Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images)