PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I have to say… Director Gore Verbinski (The Ring – 2002) choosing Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die for his first film in nine years was the absolute best thing to do. We last saw Gore with 2016’s A Cure for Wellness and fans have been waiting impatiently for his next project. And he’s so back! Starring Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple, Michael Pena, and Zazie Beetz, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a wildly unique, inventive, in-your-face sci-fi think piece that audiences need right now. It’s relevant. It will invoke discussions that need to be had about the dangers of AI and the effect and consumption of technology in our lives and society as a whole, and you know what? It’s pretty fucking terrifying.
A “Man From the Future” arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence
To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with Gore via Zoom about what intrigued him about the script, what he wants out of the film, and more!
PopHorror: Hi Gore! Thank you so much for your time.
Gore Verbinski: Pleasure, thank you!
PopHorror: What intrigued you about the script for Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, and made you want to be a part of the project?
Gore Verbinski: There was definitely a sense that it needed to be now, that the story felt like it was speaking to a lot of the sense that something’s wrong in our world. But I’m also just drawn to this sort of picaresque or the rogue. I love the character that Sam Rockwell plays, The Man From the Future, and I love the fact that the heroes who are going to save the world come from Norms Diner. They’re not coming from the Navy SEAL or the Academy or wherever. I like that kind of story where the misfits are the ones who are going to save us.
PopHorror: I like that too. This movie really moved me with its chaotic and engaging social commentary on our consumption of technology. What do you hope audiences walk away with after experiencing your film?
Gore Verbinski: I think the film is oddly anxiety reducing. It’s bonkers but I think there’s a nice sense of… I don’t want to say it’s like a date night movie, but it is kind of. It comes out on Valentine’s Day. Take your friend, go see the movie, go have some pie at Norms afterwards, and have a conversation, and disagree! What did you think it was about, what did you like, what did you not like? I think that process, just starting there, let’s just let that happen. I’m not asking you to wholly commit to the revolution, but just if you could start thinking about it.
PopHorror: Was there anything that you were adamant about leaving in the film no matter what?
Gore Verbinski: Yeah, but I don’t want to have any spoilers! I think there are some darker moments in the movie that I think are probably one of the several reasons why no studio – no major studio – was going to make this movie. I think humor can be the harshest critic sometimes. I think that when you deal with things in the case of Juno’s character, she’s behaving as a human in an increasingly inhuman world. I think that it is very important that her reaction is honest even if what we’re saying is, “Look at how we’ve normalized this insanity.” I think those taboo areas are critical because I think we all need to think about everything, the whole aspect of what’s going on and why we do not want to deal with the problem. We constantly put a Band-Aid on a missing limb or change a tire but the road’s full of nails. I think those aspects are also relative to AI and to what’s coming. We can’t seem to stop and address the issue. We just want to move onward. Progress at all costs. I’m fascinated by all that.
PopHorror: I appreciate that. I think the film is going to spark a lot of conversations and I think that we all need to have those right now.
Thank you so much to Gore for taking the time to chat with us! Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die invades theaters February 13, 2026.
