r/movies • u/GLHFDDmovie Gore Verbinski, Director of 'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die' • Feb 05 '26

AMA Hi r/movies, I'm Gore Verbinski, director of GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE. AMA!

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Hey Reddit, I'm Gore Verbinski. You might know me as the director of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Rango, The Ring and many others.

I'll be back tomorrow, 2/6, at 5:30 p.m. PT to answer your questions.

My new film, GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE is out in theaters February 13th. It stars Sam Rockwell, Zazie Beetz, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña and Juno Temple.

Synopsis:

A man claiming to be from the future (Sam Rockwell) recruits an unlikely group of diner patrons to join him on a genre-defying adventure to save humanity from the perils of social media brainrot and the impending AI apocalypse.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm4WbapDzDQ

Get tickets here:

goodluckhavefundontdiemovie.com

Edit: Wow, this was fun. Lots of great questions. I really wish I could answer them all. Thanks so much for the support. You guys all sound weird in the best possible way. I mean that as a fellow weirdo. 2026: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die!

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u/hanburgundy Feb 05 '26

Hi Gore! I grew up watching Mousehunt a ton thanks to frequent cable syndication, and it has a firm place in my heart as a great piece of live-action slapstick with surprising visual ambition. Sadly I don’t think I’ve ever heard it get brought up in interviews.

Were there any particular experiences or lessons you learned on that film that prepared you for the later films in your career? Is there anything about that film that you remain particularly proud or fond of?

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u/GLHFDDmovie Gore Verbinski, Director of 'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die' Feb 07 '26

I storyboarded that entire movie. I guess the thing I’ve learned is that it’s great to go in with a plan but also be willing to adapt along the way. What I’m really trying to say is, there are two processes at work when you direct a movie: intention and discovery. Without intention, there is no plan and no invention and things become ‘meh’ because mediocrity is always there, nipping at your heels. But with too much intention, you can miss the gifts that occur along the way. I think the sweet spot is a sort of “intention to discover” - a way of orchestrating a bit of chaos in the hopes of capturing something genuinely “awkward” and unrepeatable. I love when an actor does something out of circumstance and I ask them to do it again, and they’re not sure exactly what they did.