Back together again

'Break-Up' scribes commit to U deal

By MICHAEL FLEMING, GABRIEL SNYDER

Lavender

Garelick

Coming off the surprising $39 million opening of "The Break-Up," the pic's writers, Jay Lavender and Jeremy Garelick, have closed a deal worth between $2 million and $3 million for two additional pitches for Scott Stuber and Mary Parent to produce at Universal Pictures.

Garelick and Lavender will write both scripts, both high-concept comedies whose premises are being guarded for now. Scribes also will serve in some producing capacity on the projects.

Between the writing and production fees, deal could be worth close to $5 million if both scripts go into production.

When they were U production co-presidents, Stuber and Parent brought in "The Break-Up." After they segued to their production shingle, Stuber produced the pic with star Vince Vaughn.

Lavender and Garelick first linked up as a writing team when they were CAA assistants, bringing on fellow agent trainee Allen Fischer (who's now at Principato Young) as their manager. As they started out on their writing career, Garelick went to work for helmer Joel Schumacher.

Their first breakthrough came with the sale of "The Golden Tux" to Dimension Films in 2002, with Todd Phillips attached to produce and direct. Since then, they've set up several more projects at Dimension.

Then, in early 2005, after Vaughn tapped Garelick and Lavender to script his idea for "The Break-Up," U snapped up their spec for $2.25 million in an auction.