Gore Verbinski ’87

As a teenager, Gore Verbinski ’87 sold his beloved punk rock guitar in order to buy his first film camera, a Super 8mm. This exchange would inevitably bring the filmmaker great success. In 2012, at the 84th Annual Academy Awards, Verbinksi walked away with the Oscar statue for Best Animated Feature for his computer-animated western comedy Rango. Verbinski directed and produced the film at his trans-media production company, Blind Wink.

Verbinski’s passion for filmmaking was ignited during high school. After making a few daredevil films with his friends, he found that he had a natural eye for cinematography and an uncanny ability to tell a story. He then applied and was accepted to the prestigious UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, from which he graduated in 1987 with a B.A. in Film.

His first professional directing jobs were music videos for alternative bands such as L7, Bad Religion and Monster Magnet. He then moved to advertising, directing commercials for Nike, Canon, Skittles, United Airlines and Coca-Cola. In 1993 he created the renowned Budweiser advertising campaign featuring croaking frogs, for which he was awarded the Cannes Advertising Silver Lion and four Clio Awards for creative excellence in advertising, design and communications.

Verbinski made his feature directorial debut in 1997 with Mousehunt, a remarkably visual cartoon family comedy. His next film was 2001’s The Mexican starring Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, and in 2002 he directed the hit thriller The Ring, which grossed more than $230 million worldwide. However, his biggest directorial success came in 2003, with the Disney theme park ride-based movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. This film earned more than five Oscar nominations and the 2003 People’s Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture. Disney ordered two more films, which Verbinski shot on location in the Caribbean and Hawaii: the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in 2006 and the third installment of the ‘Pirates’ franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in 2007. Total, these three ‘Pirates’ films grossed more than $1 billion at the box office.

Verbinski currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife and two sons.