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‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ director seeks video game success - The Los Angeles Times

Gore Verbinski is applying his creative vision to the world of gaming — and hopes to eventually strike gold.

Having found gold with his “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy of films, Gore Verbinski is now sailing into the world of video games.

The 43-year-old director had enjoyed video games since the days of “Pong,” but he stopped playing during a directorial frenzy of five movies in seven years.

After wrapping up “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” which has raked in an estimated $961 million in global box-office receipts, Verbinski emerged to find that his old pastime had changed dramatically.

Crude graphics had given way to opulent scenes rivaling the special effects in his films. Bleeps and simple theme music had turned into fully orchestrated scores.

His Rip Van Winkle moment led him to run out and buy the three latest game consoles and dive into as many games as he could.

Those include shoot ‘em ups such as “Halo 3″ and “Gears of War” as well as “Beautiful Katamari,” a loopy puzzle game in which players roll magic spheres that gather up strewed junk until they snowball into the size of planets.

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