Matthew Robbins

Matthew Robbins was born in New York City and went to Johns Hopkins University, where he received a BA degree in Romance Languages. Shortly after getting his MFA at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Robbins began writing screenplays with partner Hal Barwood. Together, in a period of three years, they wrote and sold six scripts.

In 1974, Robbins wrote the screenplay for The Sugarland Express, which was Steven Spielberg's first feature film and starred Goldie Hawn. The film won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Sugarland Express was followed by two more features for Universal Pictures; MacArthur, which starred Gregory Peck; and The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings, which starred James Earl Jones, Richard Pryor and Billy Dee Williams.
For MGM, Robbins co-wrote and directed Corvette Summer, which starred Mark Hamill and Annie Potts. At Paramount, with Barwood, he co-wrote and directed Dragonslayer, which starred Sir Ralph Richardson and Peter MacNicol. The film received two Academy Award® nominations.

At TriStar, he directed The Legend of Billie Jean and, with Barwood, wrote the screenplay for 20th Century Fox's Warning Sign. For Spielberg's Amblin Productions, Robbins co-wrote and directed *batteries not included, which starred Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. He also directed the comedy Bingo, for Tri-Star.

Collaborating with writer and director Guillermo del Toro, Robbins wrote Mimic, which starred Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam. Together, del Toro and Robbins also wrote Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, which starred Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce.

Other screenplays written with del Toro include The Count of Monte Cristo for American Zoetrope, The Coffin for Lightstorm Entertainment/20th Century Fox and Wind in the Willows for Sony. Robbins wrote the screenplay for Pinocchio based on his collaboration of the story with del Toro, their stop-motion puppet interpretation of the Collodi classic for the Henson Company. They also co-wrote the H.P. Lovecraft fantasy classic, At the Mountains of Madness.

The French comedy The Concert, co-written with director Radu Mihaileanu, was nominated for Best Original Screenplay by l'Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma. The film starred Mélanie Laurent, Aleksey Guskov and Miou-Miou.

With Bollywood director Vishal Bhardwaj, Robbins has co-written Ek Thi Daayan, which starred Emraan Hashmi, Konkona Sen Sharma and Kalki Koechlin. Robbins and Bhardwaj also collaborated on 7 Khoon Maaf, which starred Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan. Their more recent collaboration was 2014's Dedh Ishqiya, which starred Naseeruddin Shah and Madhuri Dixit.

Robbins collaborated with director Joann Sfar on The Shot, an English-language thriller for Pathé. Other collaborations include an original horror story, Bzzz, co-written with director Timur Bekmambetov.

In affiliation with George Lucas' company Industrial Light and Magic, Robbins has directed TV commercials for Coca-Cola, Chrysler, British Petroleum, Eveready, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Primestar, Eukanuba, Friday's and Crystal Light, among many others.

Universal Pictures