After a decade away from theaters, Gore Verbinski is back with his most experimental film yet.
The Oscar-winning director behind Rango and the $3.76 billion Pirates of the Caribbean franchise returns this weekend with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die—a gonzo, AI-themed dystopian odyssey that feels more Terry Gilliam than Jack Sparrow.
But what makes this comeback story fascinating isn’t just Verbinski’s audacious creative pivot.
It’s the eight-year journey from script to screen, the bold financiers who believed in original filmmaking, and the guerrilla marketing campaign that flew planes over Silicon Valley and recreated LA’s iconic Norms diner in Cape Town.
From 26-Page TV Pilot to Feature Film Phenomenon
The project started life as something completely different. The Invention of Lying co-director Matthew Robinson originally conceived a 26-page TV pilot called Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30.
That initial concept centered on a classroom scene—a literature professor desperately attempting to connect students with books. But producer Oly Obst from 3 Arts Entertainment recognized there wasn’t enough substance for a sustainable series.
Robinson reimagined everything, creating a “Man of the Future” plotline with expanded vignettes. Multiple read-throughs at 3 Arts offices with writers and performers helped evolve the screenplay into feature territory.
As time went on, the subject matter of AI only became more relevant and timely, and hotter and hotter.
That’s how producer Erwin Stoff—whose credits include Unbroken, Edge of Tomorrow, and executive producer roles on The Matrix and I Am Legend—described the project’s growing urgency.
It really reached a point where Matt said, ‘Unless we make this now, the time is actually going to pass us by.’
Enter Gore Verbinski: “The Enthusiasm of a Gladiator”
Several filmmakers expressed interest, but Stoff knew Verbinski was the right choice. After pitching him, the director responded within two days.
He responded with the enthusiasm of a gladiator. There was nothing that was going to stand in his way of making this movie.
Verbinski’s last theatrical release was 2016’s A Cure for Wellness, a psychological horror film set in a Swiss spa. Since then, he’d been developing projects including an X-Men spinoff called Gambit and an animated Netflix project titled Cattywumpus—neither of which materialized.
What drew him to Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die was the chance to work completely off the rails with Robinson’s truly original screenplay. The story follows a man from a dystopian future who lands at an LA diner—specifically Norms—where he recruits disgruntled patrons to save humanity from AI’s terminal threat.
Assembling Hollywood’s Finest—And Moving to South Africa
Verbinski brought producer Denise Chamian aboard, and Oscar winner Sam Rockwell quickly emerged as the lead. Once Rockwell committed, casting accelerated rapidly with Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, and Zazie Beetz joining.
Constantin Film bankrolled the project for approximately $20 million net, with production relocating to South Africa for lower below-the-line costs. Cape Town has previously doubled for Los Angeles in films like the 2006 Colin Farrell vehicle Ask the Dust.
For Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, the iconic Norms diner was meticulously recreated in Cape Town. From Verbinski’s attachment to theatrical release took nearly three years.
Briarcliff’s All-In Bet: Terry Gilliam Meets Mad Magazine
CAA Media Finance and Gersh held buyer screenings, and Tom Ortenberg’s Briarcliff Entertainment—fresh off propelling The Apprentice to two Oscar nominations—emerged as the most passionate suitor.
Ortenberg understood the film’s Terry Gilliam-esque sensibility immediately. He’d worked at Columbia during David Puttnam’s era when they released Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
The marketing strategy leaned hard into hipster Gilliam stylings. The primary one-sheet became a complete homage to the Monty Python alum’s animation style and his iconic 1986 film Brazil.
Multi-Clio-winning AV Squad partnered with Briarcliff marketing boss David Edwards to create the campaign. Key art designers Kiera Maloney, Ben Garriga, and Brain Lauzon at AV Print developed three distinct posters:
- The main poster featuring Rockwell in a wired headdress
- A teaser showing a finger on a bomb trigger with title treatment
- An ensemble cast piece
Other artistic influences included Mad magazine and artist Robert Williams.
Marketing Stunts That Would Make Gilliam Proud
Briarcliff deployed arguably their most creative promotional campaign since The Apprentice. The avant-garde approach included multiple guerrilla stunts designed to spark conversation.
A plane recently flew over Silicon Valley towing a banner that read: “Hire Human Beings #GoodLuckHaveFunDon’tDie.” The timing and location couldn’t have been more pointed.
Another promotion offered 2,000 free tickets to people who’d recently lost their jobs to AI—a marketing move that doubled as social commentary.
For the Monday night LA premiere, Briarcliff recreated Norms diner complete with klieg lights and a guest DJ set by The Crystal Method—a band Verbinski once directed a music video for.
Social Media Gets Weird (In the Best Way)
Briarcliff launched a TikTok fan-edit contest, providing participants with gigabytes of high-resolution footage and clips. Creators could craft their own artistic interpretations using actual film material.
Absurdist social media influencer @TrueWagner (Alan Wagner) created an “AI Son” viral video and website stunt that generated 3 million organic views. The stunt culminated with Wagner appearing in NYC’s Times Square in front of a real—not digital—billboard for the film.
Box Office Potential and Breaking Records
The film made its world premiere as a surprise screening at Austin’s Fantastic Fest, followed by appearances at LA’s BeyondFest and Palm Springs Film Festival.
Industry insiders believe Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die could represent an opening weekend record for Briarcliff Entertainment over four days. Their previous best was 2020’s Honest Thief, which grossed $4.3 million Friday through Monday.
Why This Movie Matters Beyond Box Office
Regardless of financial performance, the project represents something increasingly rare in modern cinema: bold, original filmmaking backed by financiers willing to take creative risks.
Thank God financiers like Constantin exist, because that’s what makes it possible to make these types of films, and it takes this kind of determination to make movies like this and show theatrically.
Producer Oly Obst emphasized the cultural stakes even more directly:
One of the worst types of censorship is self-censorship. If people aren’t willing to take risks on scary, crazy, adventurous stories, then we’ll start to self-censor ourselves and stop trying to tell them.
In an era dominated by franchise extensions and algorithmic storytelling, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die stands as a middle finger to safe choices—and a celebration of what happens when established filmmakers embrace chaos.
Verbinski’s 10-year absence wasn’t retirement. It was apparently just him waiting for material weird enough to warrant his return.