Like so many other screenwriters, Hal Barwood had a yearning to direct. Although Barwood penned five films with collaborator Matthew Robbins, including Dragonslayer (which Barwood produced and Robbins directed) and Sugarland Express — helmed by a pre-Jaws Steven Spielberg — Hal Barwood always knew he had a date with a director's chair.
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Publicity Ills
The apex of the Barwood-Robbins collaboration came in 1981 with Dragonslayer (FANGORIA #13), co-funded by Paramount Pictures and Disney in one of the latter's first adult mainstream film ventures – complete with state-of-the-art special FX by Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic. Ostensibly a "surefire success," Dragonslayer' 's boxoffice receipts could hardly slay a sparrow much less a dragon. The film quickly disappeared from theaters.
"I blame the marketing department at Paramount Pictures," Barwood sternly charges. "I don't think they ever had an approach to the film. Paramount was quite satisfied to go through the summer with the money they were going to get from Raiders of the Lost Ark and paid no attention to our movie. It was almost as expensive as Raiders, but the negative cost was half Paramount's and half Disney's.
"Paramount didn't support Dragonslayer, and they didn't prepare to market it. They just dropped it. When they finally decided to release the film, they just forgot about it. It didn't happen by deliberate choice, but they didn't take care to make sure it didn't happen. I was quite shocked.
"I was very proud of Dragonslayer. I still am. That doesn't mean it didn't have flaws, but this lack of marketing was very extreme. We never had a press kit on that film."
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