After directing the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” films (2003–2007) and the animated movie “Rango” (2011), which won the Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Animated Film, things have been relatively quiet for director Gore Verbinski. “The Lone Ranger” was an expensive disappointment at the box office, and the back-to-basic “A Cure for Wellness” was well-respected but kind of came and went. But seven years after that film, Verbinski is back with “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” a science-fiction thriller with a spectacular cast.
Trade reported over the weekend that Sam Rockwell (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Emmy nominee Zazie Beetz (“Atlanta,” “Deadpool 2”), Haley Lu Richardson (“The White Lotus”), Michael Peña (“The Martian”), and BAFTA winner Juno Temple (“Ted Lasso” and season five of “Fargo”) are all set to star in the movie.
“Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” follows a man from the future (Rockwell) who arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit a precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night-six-block quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.
Filming is due to begin later this year in Cape Town, South Africa, and the screenplay was written by Matthew Robinson (“Love & Monsters” and “Dora and the Lost City of Gold”).
Verbisnki has tried to mount several films over the years, and at one point, he was scheduled to direct 20th Century Fox’s “Gambit” film starring Channing Tatum, but it never came to pass, and “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” is his first film since 2017’s “A Cure For Wellness.” The film is among the many projects sold at the European Film Market (EFM) during the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, which is currently taking place. [Deadline]
