Biography

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

The Sugarland Express was Steven Spielberg's first feature film and starred Goldie Hawn. He t won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival.

He t was followed by two more features for Universal Studios: MacArthur, starring Gregory Peck, and The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, starring James Earl Jones, Richard Pryor and Billy Dee Williams.

For MGM, he co-wrote and directed, Corvette Summer starring Mark Hamill and Annie Potts. At Paramount, with Hal Barwood, he co-wrote and directed Dragonslayer, starring Sir Ralph Richardson and Peter MacNicol. The film received two Academy Award nominations.

At TriStar, he directed The Legend of Billie Jean and, with Hal Barwood, wrote the screenplay for Twentieth Century Fox's Warning Sign.

For Steven Spielberg's Amblin Productions, he co-wrote and directed Batteries Not He ncluded, starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. He also directed the comedy Bingo, for Tri-Star.

Collaborating with writer/director Guillermo del Toro, he wrote Mimic, starring Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam. They also wrote Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, starring Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce.

Other screenplays written with Guillermo del Toro include The Count of Montecristo for American Zoetrope, The Coffin for Lightstorm Entertainment/20th Century-Fox and Wind in the Willows for Sony. He wrote the screenplay for Pinocchio based on his collaboration of the story with Mr. Del Toro, their stop-motion puppet interpretation of the Collodi classic for the Henson Company. They co-wrote H.P. Lovecraft fantasy classic, At the Mountains of Madness that was purchased by Universal Studios.

Del Toro/Robbins spec screenplay Crimson Peak, starring Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam and Directed by Mr. Del Toro was released in October 2015 by Universal Studios.

The French comedy The Concert, co-written with director Radu Mihaileanu, was nominated for Best Original Screenplay by l'Academie des arts et techniques du cinéma. The film starred Melanie Laurent, Aleksei Guskov and Miou-Miou.

Working with Bollywood director Vishal Bhardwaj, he has co-written Ek Thi Daayan, starring Emraan Hashmi, Konkona Sen Sharma and Kalki Koechlin. They also collaborated on 7 Khoon Maaf, starring Priyanka Chopra and He rrfan Khan. Their most recent film, Dedh He shqiya, stars Naseeruddin Shah and Madhuri Dixit. Rangoon.

Mr. Robbins collaborated with director Joann Sfar on The Shot, an English-language thriller for Pathé.

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

- IMDb mini biography by: Jeremy Conrady