Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Interview: “It’s A Tough One To Pull Off.”

Gore Verbinski discusses his new film, Sam Rockwell, and the timely commentary on technology and humanity in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die premiered at Fantastic Fest 2025 as one of the secret screenings and blew audiences away. It is a timely movie that is completely unafraid to tackle the issues with our world today, in a way that is not only entertaining, but actually funny.

Mama’s Geeky caught up with director Gore Verbinski about this incredible film to talk about the amazing cast, walking the fine line of making serious things funny, and why Fantastic Fest was the perfect audience for it.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Needs To Be Experienced As Blind As Possible

Mama’s Geeky: Well, first of all, congratulations. I loved Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. It became my favorite of the festival. I love that I went in knowing basically nothing about it. So I’m curious how much you plan to work with, like, marketing on trailer cutting, because I feel like there’s a lot of stuff that should hopefully be kept from audiences.

Gore Verbinski: We’re counting on you guys to make the noise. I don’t even know if we have a trailer.

Mama’s Geeky: You’ll have one eventually, right?

Gore Verbinski: We’ll have one. I’m sure we’ll have one. But it’s a very small marketing spend. So it was important to come to Fantastic Fest. Well, it’s just like Sam Rockwell’s coming to Norm’s to recruit. We’re looking for 10 champions out of Fantastic Fest who can make some noise, because I think this movie’s been scrappy from the beginning, and I think it’s going to be scrappy right to the end.

Finding Humor in Humanity

Mama’s Geeky: Juno Temple’s story, I found myself crying during part of it, and then laughing and thinking to myself, “Should I be laughing at this?”

Gore Verbinski: I know. It’s a tough one to pull off. I think it’s so important that she reacts humanely in an increasingly inhumane world. I think that’s this Kafkaesque narrative that we’re driving on the road, and we keep changing tires, but the road’s filled with nails, but all we want to do is change tires. I think it has something powerful to say through absurdity, and it was interesting to see. That’s why it’s so important to see this movie with an audience, because you start to go, “Is it okay to laugh?” And then somebody laughs, and then you’re kind of, “Okay,” and then you see it build up, and by the time that couple’s talking about, “We’re really tall,” it’s so great. Just seeing it with an audience, I think it’s, because you’re in the editing room, and you’re kind of, “Okay, I think this is the shape that’s going to work.”

Mama’s Geeky: How many cuts does it take to really hone that in in the right tone?

Gore Verbinski: Well, we have a great editor, Craig Wood, who I think really understands that, but also Juno’s just, you know, she’s kind of keeping it, I think that’s the key. It’s not funny to her. So she’s reacting as we’re reacting to this kind of absurd world, and her want is true, right? Her want is to get her kid back. It’s just kind of a joyous, weird, sweet and sour film.

Why Sam Rockwell Was So Perfect For His Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Role

Mama’s Geeky: Right from the opening scene with Sam Rockwell, I was like, “Oh, I am so in on this movie.”

Gore Verbinski: He’s great.

Mama’s Geeky: Can you talk about casting him and what makes him so perfect for this role in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die?

Gore Verbinski: Yeah, we’ve been trying to work together for about 15 years, 20 years. I mean, we touched base. I met Sam, God, it must have been forever ago. We keep talking about trying to do something, and when I sent him the script, he was all in immediately. I mean, I think he saw himself as the man from the future, and that opening sequence, you don’t really start most movies with an 11-page monologue.

Mama’s Geeky: Is it 11 pages?

Gore Verbinski: Yeah, that was the one that was really tough. We did a lot of work. We recorded it, rehearsed it. I ended up designing the interior of the space for his choreography, just so it wouldn’t be boring, so you have to be engaged. I think the patrons of that diner are very much the audience in terms of, “I don’t believe this guy,” and by the end of that scene, you’re willing to go on a journey.

Mama’s Geeky: I’ve got to talk about his outfit. How did you come up with that, and how was it made?

Gore Verbinski: Well, we didn’t have any money, so we actually, Yeji and my assistant and I and Garrett, we went to this place that I used to go to on San Fernando Boulevard called Apex Electronics, and it’s just this massive hardware store of used and broken shit from old TVs and tubes and Soviet electronics, and we just, “oh, I’ll take three of those blue ones and one of those spinny things,” and we kind of started building his suit from scratch. So it was homemade, and I think in a way that you, I think it’s important that at the beginning of the film you feel like maybe this guy crawled out of a dumpster and wandered into norms and was kind of one of those vagrants who maybe at one point studied Shakespeare, but needs to be in a hospital. There’s something, like a rubber band snapped somewhere. So you think of that untrustworthy narrator, and throughout the journey you’re not quite sure if the person leading you knows where he’s going. I think that’s really that sort of wobbly narrative. I’ve always been fascinated by the misfits. And I think this movie, we didn’t, the future didn’t send Arnold Schwarzenegger, it sent Sam Rockwell. That’s how fucked up the future is, right? That’s the best thing we got. This is what we have, and that’s it. He’s just a joy to work with. He’s a phenomenon. And you kind of have to, as a director, you sort of have to design a slightly looser frame, I think, because he’s never going to do the same thing twice. I mean, certain actors can put it on a dime. I think Sam is always pursuing some way to be honest, and that may take him to the left or to the right, and you’re blocking, and you just have to be ready for it.

Mama’s Geeky: Was there a lot of improv with him for Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die?

Gore Verbinski: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we had it really blocked out. We had it timed. We had it blocked out. We knew on what line you’re getting up on the table, and what line you’re, but there’s still a lot of, there’s no matching take to take. We’re saying, it’s just whatever happens, you got to go with it.

Timely & Relatable Commentary on Technology

Mama’s Geeky: One of the things I related to a lot is, towards the beginning, all the teenagers are just on their phones, in class, completely zoned out. How important do you think it is to put something like that on screen?

Gore Verbinski: 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?

It’s like campfire storytelling. No, we’ll tell the story. It’s like, no, no, we have to sit around a campfire and tell a story. That’s what makes us human, and it’s coming after that, and I think that’s partly because the origins, it’s sort of pre-sentient moment is sort of studying our user profile. Like, it’s like, “How do we keep humans engaged? What are they buying?” It was tasked with sort of creating algorithms for how to keep people engaged, and I think it’s, you know, it’s, I think part of that is now in its kind of source code, and that’s why I think our villain isn’t Skynet, you know, “exterminate humans.” Our villain is, it’s kind of worse. It’s like, it wants you to like it. You know, it’s gonna demand that you like it.

Mama’s Geeky: I feel like social media, if it wasn’t for my job, I’d try to not be on it, because I just get sucked in.

Gore Verbinski: Yeah, no, it’s super addicting. I mean, I don’t have social media, because I would probably like it too much, you know? I mean, it’s definitely a drug. It’s fascinating. It’s always been really nice to come to Fantastic Fest, because I feel like we’re in a theater, we’re all together in one space, we’re watching this movie, we’re talking about it together.

The Fantastic Fest Experience

Mama’s Geeky: What do you think it is about Fantastic Fest that made this the perfect place to premiere Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die?

Gore Verbinski: It’s funny, because Lisa, as soon as she saw it, she said, “there’s no movie that’s more brand aligned.” And I thought, okay, that’s spot on. I mean, I think, I’m a big fan of sort of, I think the castaways are the ones who are going to come back and sail back in and save the world. I like misfits. I like, you know, the anti-hero. I think there’s something about that Norm’s Diner. It’s not movie stars, and it’s not the military. It’s Norm’s. And I think something about, you know, Fantastic Fest is like, “these are the champions.” Like, this is where this movie, this is where we’re going to find the heroes for this story. It’s at this place. And just talking with everybody, I feel like we all kind of have a kinship, you know? We feel like what we like.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die comes out on January 30th and you should see it on the biggest screen possible.

NEXT: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Review [Fantastic Fest 2025]