Redbeard’s Castle

A Conversation with Screenwriter Matthew Robbins

After spending his junior year in Paris watching movies with Johns Hopkins roommate Walter Murch and graduate film school at USC, Matthew Robbins began his long and distinguished career in screenwriting and directing with contributions to George Lucas’s first feature, THX1138, followed in rapid succession by Sugarland Express with Steven Spielberg, Corvette Summer, The Bingo Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings, Dragonslayer, and batteries not included—a still timely tale of alien gadgets from outer space who put the kibosh on urban gentrification.

In the 1990s, mentoring an up-and-coming young Guadalajaran through a film program in that city led Robbins to a rich collaboration with the director Guillermo del Toro that so far has produced Mimic, the remake of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, and Crimson Peak, which was released last month on DVD, and today on Netflix.

From his home in west Marin County Robbins spoke with me about Crimson Peak, the Gothic romance, and a trunkful of movie scripts he and del Toro have yet to make.

—Victoria Nelson

I. REVERSING EXPECTATION

VICTORIA NELSON:  After twenty years of working together, you know Guillermo del Toro very well. What do you feel are the qualities you bring to this relationship that Guillermo doesn’t, and what are the qualities he brings to it that you don’t?

MATTHEW ROBBINS: Guillermo is a master director, a multitalented leader who has a tremendous empathetic way with his actors and command of the camera. His staging is inventive and he’s also fascinated with design and style—he’s got the whole package for leading a big orchestra every day. He also has the gift of having obsessions, which is very useful for a film director. Guillermo’s obsessions [insects, mechanical devices, ghosts, the Gothic, many more] are well enough known that I don’t really have to mention them.

On my side of the fence, it’s always the same thing no matter what genre I’m working in. I try to identify what the movie is about. Is there a theme working in all this detail and set decoration and atmosphere and genre? Is there something nourishing enough in there to merit two hours?

The other area in which I’m very invested is the creation of characters. Do the characters have enough meat on their bones to merit development and hold our interest as people? That’s the foundation of our partnership: I’m always the one who harps on those things; Guillermo’s eyes start to sparkle when he begins to see how he’s going to shoot it and direct it and cut it....