Gore Verbinski looks ready to shake things up at a time when theaters are packed with reboots, remakes, and never-ending franchises.
The director, whose style shaped everything from the unnerving chills of The Ring to the moody, Gothic feel of A Cure for Wellness, is finally headed back to the big screen with something genuinely original.
Early reactions from the film’s surprise screening at Fantastic Fest in September have been surprisingly strong. People are calling it a fresh, ambitious standout, and many think it could make a real splash even though it’s arriving in early 2026, a release window that big movies often skip.
In a previous press release, Briarcliff Entertainment CEO Tom Ortenberg shared, "This film is wildly original, endlessly entertaining, and unlike anything audiences have seen before. After seeing it, we immediately knew Briarcliff was the perfect partner to distribute Gore Verbinski’s first independent, bonkers movie. We couldn’t be more excited to share his vision with audiences across the country."
On how the film relates to the current world's introduction and growing reliance on AI, Verbinski stated, "Well, I think in the case of a movie that’s about AI, that’s the sort of, I mean, that’s the beginning, right?"
"I mean, the fact that we don’t communicate with each other, I think is essential to sort of what, you know, it fascinates me that AI sort of, right out of the gate, is taking songwriting and illustration, and all of these kind of, like, what is it going to do next?"
"Does it want to breathe for us? Like, there are certain things we, like, go just, you know, cure cancer, go to Mars. Like, what are you doing attacking the shit that we need to do?"
"A man claiming to be from the future takes the patrons of an iconic Los Angeles diner hostage in search of unlikely recruits in a quest to save the world."
Gore Verbinski directs from a script penned by Matthew Robinson.
The film stars Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chandhry, Tom Taylor, and Juno Temple.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die hits North American theaters on February 13. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, back in September.