Fox bets on Vegas pitch

Studio picks up romantic laffer

By NICOLE LAPORTE, GABRIEL SNYDER

Fox

Twentieth Century Fox has pre-emptively paid high six figures against seven for a comedy pitch by Dana Fox. Michael Aguilar and Dean Georgaris are producing through their Fox-based shingle Penn Station.

Pic, called "Untitled Vegas Comedy," is a broad romantic comedy in the vein of "Wedding Crashers."

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Fox said of her movie: "What happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas -- sometimes it follows you home."

Fox developed the idea with Aguilar and Georgaris.

Fox's first spec screenplay, "The Wedding Date," was made at Universal, starring Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney. She has since been working on the Fox lot, writing an untitled CGI pic for the studio. She also wrote "Girl Most Likely to" for Marc Platt and Robert Luketic at MGM.

Aguilar is producing the upcoming Warner Bros. pic "Unaccompanied Minors," based on a segment from NPR's "This American Life," directed and written by Paul Feig. He also exec produced "Constantine."

Georgaris wrote the screenplays for "Paycheck," the updated "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Tristan and Isolde."