A man attempts to recruit a group of unlikely heroes Director Gore Verbinski’s sci-fi adventure comedy, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.

In Verbinski’s film, a man claiming to be from the future, arrives at an iconic Los Angeles diner, where he takes a precise combination of disgruntled patrons as hostages, hoping to convince them to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.

On February 28, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Verbinski discussed the making of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die during a Q&A moderated by Director Sacha Gervasi (November Criminals).

During the conversation, Verbinski spoke about balancing technical demands with directing the performances for a movie as demanding as this one and focused in on the opening monologue.

“I think the opening monologue was probably the biggest challenge. You don’t normally pick up a script and there’s an 11-page opening monologue to start your movie. I think that sort of scared the crap out of me, so that’s the one I broke down, recorded a radio play, then edited it, then re-recorded, then recorded with Sam [Rockwell], then blocked it out on the stage and taped it off and worked on the choreography almost like a musical number.”

Verbinski’s other directorial credits include the feature films A Cure for Wellness, The Lone Ranger, Rango, The Weather Man, The Mexican, Mousehunt, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. He has been a DGA member since 1997.