Straying from the familiar style of his successful real-life films, high-profile director Gore Verbinski ditches the pirate hat for lizard land in his new movie, Rango.
The movie — starring the voice talents of Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin and Alfred Molina — is about a chameleon named Rango who becomes consumed with an identity crisis and finds himself in a world full of adventure.
Growing off his tendency and preference for Western films, particularly postmodern Westerns, Verbinski considers his new movie to be more Western than it is a traditional animated flick, though the film is completely animated.
“People talk about animation like it’s a genre, yet I don’t really think of it as an anime film,” Verbinski said.”I definitely consider Rango as a Western film. Animation is not just for moms and kids. We’ll do a genre splice [because] doing a straight genre doesn’t do anymore. A pirate story with ghosts, an animation film about a chameleon with an identity crisis. Animation is not a genre; it’s not meant for a specific audience. I never set out to make a film for a certain audience. I just try to make the films that I like.”
When it came to start casting for his latest film, Verbinski said he knew Depp was perfect for the role as Rango.
“Totally wanted it to be slightly absurd, aquatic creature in the desert,” Verbinski said. “Quite often Johnny would say he has a little bit of Jack Sparrow, a little bit of Tod Sweeney, a little bit of Edward Scissorhands. He’d flinch when I told him it seemed like there wasn’t a little bit of Johnny. He is Rango, he is ultimately going to start being like Rango. He arrived to be the process.”
Verbinski has also filmed the family comedy Mousehunt with Nathan Lane and Lee Evans, which premiered in 1997 and kick-started his career as a director.
Only a few years after, Verbinski filmed The Mexican(2001), The Ring(2002), and the highlight of his career thus far, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). Since the monumental success of the first movie, Disney has produced two sequels: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End(2007).
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest broke box office records as the highest grossing film in its first weekend at $135 million. The movie grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.
Despite his major success with the Pirates trilogy, Verbinski said he thoroughly enjoyed the challenges of something new like Rango.
“The reason to not do another pirate film was ’cause that it didn’t scare me,” Verbinski said. “It was all a paid education. Each time I did wonderful, I was lucky to jump into something I was scared to do. As soon as you feel like you know how to do, the potential to, so I just try to go with things I can accomplish. I try to hire people who have talent, but who haven’t tried a different thing.”
Rango opens nationwide on March 4.
