Gregor "Gore" Verbinski is an American film director, screenwriter, producer
and musician. He is best known for directing the first three films of the
Pirates of the Caribbean film saga, The Ring, and Rango. Verbinski is a graduate
of UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. His most recent film, The
Lone Ranger, was released in 2013. Verbinski won the Academy Award for Best
Animated Feature in 2012 for his animated action-comedy western Rango.
With his films having a collective worldwide gross of $3.72 billion,
Verbinski is the 9th highest grossing film director in the world.
Early life Verbinski was born in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee, the third of five children of Laurette Ann and Victor Vincent
Verbinski, a nuclear physicist. His father was of Polish descent.
Music career Verbinski was active in several L.A.
rock bands early in his career. He played in the Daredevils, Bulldozer, The
Drivers, and the all-star band The Cylon Boys Choir. He was also in a band called
The Little Kings, which backed Stiv Bators on his version of "Have Love Will
Travel" with legendary drummer Chris Poobah Bailey. Along with a cover of the
Moody Blues song "The Story in Your Eyes", the song was released by Bators
in the Fall of 1986 as a 12-inch single on Bomp! and was later included in
Bators' compilation album L.A. L.A. On the compilation album's liner notes,
label owner Greg Shaw described the band as "an adequate but rootless Hollywood
glam-damaged band with tattoos". Film career
His first films were a series of 8 mm films called "The Driver Files" c. 1979,
when he was a young teen. He started his career directing music videos for bands
like Vicious Rumors, Bad Religion, NOFX, 24-7 Spyz and Monster Magnet working at
Palomar Pictures. Verbinski moved from music videos to commercials, where he
worked for many brand names including Nike, Coca-Cola, Canon, Skittles and
United Airlines. One of his most famous commercials was for Budweiser, featuring
frogs who croak the brand name. For his efforts in commercials, Verbinski won
four Clio Awards and one Cannes Advertising Silver Lion.
After completing a short film, The Ritual, Verbinski made his feature film
directing debut with Mouse Hunt. The film was a hit globally and he soon
followed up the success with the action/comedy The Mexican, starring
Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt. The film received mixed reviews, and performed
modestly at the box-office, earning $68 million domestically which was quite
meager considering its star power. Verbinski followed it up with the horror
film remake The Ring, which struck gold globally, grossing well over $200
million worldwide. Verbinski also had a directorial hand in The Time Machine
that year, temporarily taking over for an exhausted Simon Wells. Verbinski
directed some of the underground Morlock sequences and is given a Thanks to
credit in the film. He then directed the very successful
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl which earned over $600
million at the international box office. This was his first collaboration with
producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whom he has since collaborated with on several other
movies. His next film was The Weather Man, which starred Nicolas Cage. The
film received mixed to positive reviews but was a box office failure. In March
2005, he started filming the sequels Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's
Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The former then became his
biggest success so far, becoming the third film ever to gross over $1 billion
at the international box office. Verbinski was also set to direct a film
for Universal based on the video game BioShock. Verbinski was then replaced by
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo as director and the film was subsequently cancelled.
In 2011 and 2013, Verbinski would delve into the Western genre, with decidedly
different results: Rango was well received, critically and commercially,
and earned the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. However, his
adaptation of the 1930s radio hero, The Lone Ranger for Disney, was not, the
project having been stuck in development hell for several years, undergone
rewrites and budget cuts, and gained controversy for the casting of Johnny
Depp as the Native American Tonto. The film grossed $260 million against a
$215-225 million budget, plus an estimated $150-160 million marketing
campaign. That same year, he was also the executive producer of the Ben
Stiller adaptation of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
He has been announced to produce and direct a remake of the film Clue, based
on the board game. His future project will be an adaption of William Monahan's
novel Light House: A Trifle, which is a story about an artist running away from
the Mafia who hides in a lighthouse, in which kooky characters live. He will
also direct Butterfly, a psychological thriller about a man trying to drive his
wife insane. Steve Carell is set to star in it.
Other projects Verbinski was involved with Matter, an
original futuristic videogame that was being developed for the Xbox 360 using
Kinect. Announced at E3 2012, Verbinski later confirmed that the game is now
cancelled. Music videos
Vicious Rumors - "Don't wait for Me" 1990
Vicious Rumors – "Children" 1991 24-7 Spyz – Stuntman "This Is...24-7
Spyz!" "Strength In Numbers" NOFX – "S&M Airlines"
Bad Religion – "American Jesus" Bad Religion – "Atomic Garden"
Bad Religion – "21st Century" Bad Religion – "Stranger Than Fiction"
Monster Magnet – "Negasonic Teenage Warhead"
The Crystal Method – "Born Too Slow" Filmography
References External links
Gore Verbinski at the Internet Movie Database