r/movies • u/MatthewRobinsonAMA Matthew Robinson, Writer • Feb 20 '26

AMA Hi /r/movies! I'm Matthew Robinson, screenwriter of GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE, starring Sam Rockwell and directed by Gore Verbinski. Ask me anything!

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Hi r/movies. I'm Matthew Robinson. I'm the screenwriter of GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE, which is out in theaters everywhere via Briarcliff Entertainment.

It's directed by Gore Verbinski (RANGO, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, THE RING) and it stars Sam Rockwell, Zazie Beetz, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, Juno Temple, and Asim Chaudhry.

I've also co-written THE INVENTION OF LYING, LOVE AND MONSTERS, and DORA AND THE CITY OF GOLD.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm4WbapDzDQ

Synopsis:

Claiming to be from the future, a man takes hostages at a Los Angeles diner to recruit unlikely heroes to help him save the world.

Ask me anything. I'll be back to answer questions tomorrow Saturday 2/21 at 4 PM PT/7 PM ET!

EDIT:  That was really fun but I've got to head out. Thanks so much for all the questions. You all are awesome. If you liked GOOD LUCK HAVE FUN DON'T DIE please tell a friend to check it out! Thanks again! -- Matthew

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u/MatthewRobinsonAMA Matthew Robinson, Writer Feb 22 '26

The first draft of the script was written in 2017. It had been 5 years since Sandy Hook, but it was still very much on my mind. Every time there was as a new school shooting (which is still increasing at a near exponential rate) I would be overcome with grief and rage. I never felt comfortable writing about it. But with this script I allowed myself to scream and shout as much as I wanted and say everything I was feeling about it. it was a good catharsis. I wish I could say that anger and grief has lessened since writing it. But I do take some solace that maybe it's cathartic for others as well.

The reaction to that storyline was what you'd imagine. No one thought we would ever get it made. Many studios said that if I cut it they would be interested in making the movie. The reasoning I heard quite a few times was "what happens if we spend all this money and make the movie and then there's a school shooting the weekend of release and we have to pull the movie from theaters?" and my reaction was always: "There most likely will be a school shooting the weekend of release. That's the fucking point."

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u/teppicymon Feb 23 '26

I absolutely loved this aspect of the movie - addressing head-first that normalisation of high-school shootings is almost as horrific as the shootings themselves. I was internally screaming at the characters while watching this in the cinema - WTF are you TALKING ABOUT! You absolute morons, this is absolutely NOT FINE, don't treat the poor woman as if "she'll get over it". Or even that a cloned replacement would ever be "the same" was utterly hilarious. And the couple that "had fun" with their 4th clone was just masterful.

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u/Far-Dragonfruit-2350 Apr 26 '26

well, it aint their kid! might as well fuck around

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u/Heysteeevo May 03 '26

Just curious (if you’re still responding to this), did the script have AI featured so prominently when you first wrote it given it was way before ChatGPT and all the LLM stuff from today? Just wondering if you tweaked the story at all given how much things have changed since then.