Sci-fi comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die – Gore Verbinski’s first film in nine years – has a new trailer. Have a gander: Update: We don’t post trailers so much these days, but we’ll make an exception in this case. Because, one: it’s a film that’s indie enough that you may not have seen ... Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die | Gore Verbinski’s movie gets a first trailer
Sci-fi comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die – Gore Verbinski’s first film in nine years – has a new trailer. Have a gander:
Update: We don’t post trailers so much these days, but we’ll make an exception in this case. Because, one: it’s a film that’s indie enough that you may not have seen it yet; and two: it’s well worth a watch.
It’s our first proper look at Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, director Gore Verbinski’s first film since 2016’s A Cure For Wellness, and his first outright comedy since the animated gem, Rango.
Sam Rockwell – black in sci-fi territory all these years after Moon – plays a somewhat scruffy man who appears in an American diner one night claiming to be from the future. Years from now, our planet’s descended into an AI-driven hellscape, and so Rockwell’s here to assemble a small team to help him avert disaster – Terminator style.
Can it live up to the promise of this superbly edited trailer, or will its sheer wackiness outstay its welcome in the full feature? Early reviews have been highly positive. We’re very much looking forward to seeing more.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is in US cinemas from the 13th February.
Our original story follows…
3rd September 2025: The 2016 mountain clinic horror A Cure For Wellness was the last time we saw Gore Verbinski direct a film, but he’ll soon be back with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. The cast was announced last year, and it’s a good one: the most familiar names include Sam Rockwell, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz and Juno Temple.
Over the past few days, however, there’s been another significant announcement: it’s secured a distributor. Briarcliff Entertainment have picked up Good Luck for release in the US, and has announced the date it’ll appear in cinemas there: 30th January 2026.
Plot descriptions circulating online are brief, but hint at a sci-fi comedy thriller that may or may not contain subtle notes of Looper or The Terminator. It’s said to about a man from the future – played by Rockwell – who “recruits the patrons of a Los Angeles diner… to help combat a rogue artificial intelligence” according to a logline we first read in 2024.
The film’s presumably either complete or in post production, because what Verbinski’s made impressed Briarcliff boss Tom Ortenberg enough to pick it up for distribution.
“This film is wildly original, endlessly entertaining, and unlike anything audiences have seen before,” Ortenberg said in a statement published by Deadline. “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.”
Verbinski has a long track record of visually complex genre films. Most will be familiar with his Pirates Of The Caribbean fantasy swashbucklers, but there’s also his remake of The Ring, his terrific acid western homage Rango, and his less terrific action western, The Lone Ranger. His movies are always laced with offbeat humour – like the shot of the giant inflatable Spongebob floating down the street in his wry comedy drama The Weather Man – so it’ll be fascinating to see what he’s done with the confined-sounding Good Luck.
It’s a movie made without big studio money, so it’s also pleasing to hear that it’ll get a cinema release rather than sneak out on some screening service. When we hear of a UK release date (hopefully it’ll see the big screen in the UK, too) if and when we get one.
