Gregor "Gore" Verbinski is an American film director and writer, best known for directing the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films and The Ring.

Early life

Verbinski was born the third of five children to Vic and
Laurette Verbinski in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. His siblings are Janine, Claire,
Diane and Steven. His father was of Polish descent and worked as a nuclear physicist
at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 1967 the Verbinski family moved to
Southern California, where a young Gregor grew up in the town of La Jolla.
Gregor was an active Boy Scout and surfed regularly. He went to Torrey Pines
Elementary, Muirlands Junior High, and La Jolla High School before attending
UCLA Film School. Verbinski graduated with his BFA in Film from UCLA in 1987.

 Music career

Verbinski was active in several L.A. rock bands early in his
career. His first band was Thelonius Monster, which included drummer Danny
Heifetz. He also 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". Along with a cover of the Moody Blues song "The
Story in Your Eyes" (by other musicians), the song was released by Bators
in the Fall of 1986 as a 12-inch single on Bomp! (catalogue #12136) 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".

 Movie career

 His first films were
a series of 8 mm films called "The Driver Files" circa 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, 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, formerly was planned with an PG-13 rating. It has also been announced
that he direct a remake of the film Clue, based on the board game.