Watch GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE Video Interview: Director Gore Verbinski

Dave Canfield, Contributor; Chicago, Illinois

February 24 2026, 10:02 AM

It was exciting enough to see the new Gore Verbinski film, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, months ahead of time at Fantastic Fest 2025.

But I was shocked to hear I’d actually scored a face-to-face interview. It underscored for me just how much I love the man’s work.

He’s the kind of director who does big mainstream movies about decidedly odd stuff. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl was based a theme park ride and introduced one of the most eccentric characters ever. Verbiniski has been all over the genre map leaving solid marks along his path. Mouse Hunt (1997) is a marvelous bit of stunt-laden slapstick that makes great use of stars Nathan Lane, Lee Evans and Christopher Walken.

The Ring (2002), the first of the American adaptations of the J-Horror wave, was visually stunning and even more disturbing than the original. The animated film, Rango (2011) was charming as hell. Even A Cure for Wellness (2016) offered a feast of gothic imagery and dread despite whatever narrative problems obscured the view. In a word you could describe his oeuvre as eccentric.

His new film, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, is probably his strangest film yet. It tells the tale of a time-traveler played by Sam Rockwell who walks into a late-night diner and informs the patrons he’s come to collect a team to help him on his mission to save the world from the ravages of AI. The details of that mission are best left for viewers to experience, but Verbinski makes the most out of the opportunities the screenplay provides for visual invention.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is, quite simply put, one of the most entertaining films I’ve seen this year. Rockwell is positively unhinged as the raggedy time-traveling soldier and the film borrows liberally from other much-loved movies without losing its own identity. I saw The Wizard of Oz (1939), Wall-E (2008), The Iron Giant (1999), Toy Story (1995) and The Terminator (1984).

Verbinski proved to be an affable even playful, and surprisingly unaffected-by-success conversation partner. Watch our video interview below.

The film is now playing in movie theaters nationwide. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.