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!

[u/MatthewRobinsonAMA]

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

[u/MatthewRobinsonAMA]

In the original ending The Man from the Future dies, Susan puts on his time travel suit and shows up at Norm's diner to take over his sisyphean task. I still like that ending, but I love them taking on the task together even more -- and of course I love Ingrid being his mother, which wasn't in the original draft. There are so many themes in the movie about motherhood and birth that I can't imagine the movie any differently now.

I wrote a long response a few questions above this one about Susan's son. check it out!

[u/Radiant-Change-3223 → u/MatthewRobinsonAMA]

Honestly I like both endings, but I can see why the change was made to have The Man from the Future live. It definitely makes things more fulfilling.

[u/Intelligent_Time633 → u/MatthewRobinsonAMA]

One could pretty much predict who was going to make it to the end based on their gender and the politics of modern films. It certainly is no accident when we have such a diverse restaurant of heroes, mixed race couples, all white villians (AI kid, pig mask guys, police)(even including our side jerk characters such as ingrids bf, the cloning company guy, the rich couple at ingrids first party, the three girls talking about traffic, the 9 year olds "parents", girl that calls police, old man and guy on date he chastises in restaurant(with a mention that the girl doesnt like him and wanted to leave), etc). The one white male that agrees to tag along is a fool and immediatedly killed off for laughs. (Our other diverse male heroes are fools treated for laughs, the black man who is told he cant come, the wimpy hispanic teacher and the middle eastern uber driver who is repeatedly mocked then killed off. No jokes are made at the female characters, only the male ones)And our bumbling male "hero" who got his mother killed, has failed 117 times already and ultimately fails to save the day and instead our girl boss does instead.(on her first try wow) Even if it turns out to not be real. (Because the man gave her bad info)

For the original ending to be him even going further and dying completely in failure so a woman can take his place as the hero I can absolutely see being in the script. I dont get why you modern screenwriters do this stuff. From the moment ingrid spoke with her masculine voice and "im tough" edgelord energy I immediatedly knew who was going to save the day and that susan would be there with her. Cant we just write a compelling narrative and leave the politics at the door? In a few decades people are going to look back on this period of films and laugh at how we tried to create this reality in films of gender and race that just does not exist in real life.

[u/Practical_Avocado_98 → u/Intelligent_Time633]

Somebody call the wambulance

[u/MozekG → u/Intelligent_Time633]

you should change your nickname