Film Career
His first films were a series of 8 mm films called "The Driver Files" c. 1979, when he was a young teen. Although most associate Verbinski with feature films, he started his career directing music videos for bands like Bad Religion, NOFX, 24-7 Spyz and Monster Magnet working at Palomar Pictures. This was not surprising to his friends in Los Angeles, since he had been in various punk and rock bands; the Daredevils, for instance, included then-departed member of Bad Religion Brett Gurewitz.
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 (which he both wrote and directed), Verbinski made his feature film directing debut with his comedy flick, 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 (it was technically successful due to its moderately low $38 million budget). Verbinski followed it up with the horror film remake The Ring (2002), 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.
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.
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.
Verbinski was also set to direct a film for Universal based on the video game, BioShock. However he has since been replaced by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo as director, but he will still produce. Verbinski announced in July the film had an R-rating, although it had initially been planned with an PG-13 rating. It has also been announced that he will direct a remake of the film Clue, based on the board game.
Read more about this topic: Gore Verbinski
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