Miramax Makes 7-Figure Preempt On Terry Rossio Pitch ‘London Ghost Tour’; Josh Cooley Helms

Exclusive: In a sign that studios are willing to spend big on original ideas by proven hitmakers, Miramax has paid seven figures upfront for London Ghost Tour. That is a high price for a pitch, a four-quadrant film that will be written by Terry Rossio from a story he wrote with Jocelyn Stamat. Josh Cooley is attached to direct.

Cooley directed Transformers One and Toy Story 4, and his credits include Up, Inside Out and other animated hits. Rossio’s script work includes the blockbusters Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, National Treasure, Shrek — for which he earned an Adapted Screenplay Oscar nom and a BAFTA and Annie Award — Aladdin and other tentpoles, culminating most recently with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The collective gross on films he’s either scripted or co-written is around $12 billion.

Lorenzo Dibonaventura and Mark Vahradian are producing for their Di Bonaventura Pictures banner.