Along with his writing partner Ted Elliott, Rossio has written some of the most successful American films of the past 30 years, including Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Shrek.[2] He is the eleventh-most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of domestic box office receipts with totals at around $5.5 billion.[3] In May 1993, Rossio and Elliott were hired by TriStar Pictures to write a screenplay for Godzilla, which featured Godzilla battling a shape-shifting alien in New York. Their script was dropped by Roland Emmerich in favor of a new script of his own co–written with Dean Devlin. However, Rossio and Elliott retained a "Story By" credit.[4]
In 2011, Terry Rossio was working on a script for a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean film without his partner Ted Elliott.[5] Rossio's script was discarded in 2012, and the writer stated on his website Wordplay that a major reason was its use of a female villain, which made actor Johnny Depp "worried that it would be redundant to Dark Shadows, which also featured a female villain."[6] By January 2013, Disney hired Jeff Nathanson,[7] with whom Rossio shared co-story credit with. Following the theatrical release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in 2017, Rossio released his unproduced screenplay, and made it available on Wordplay.[8]
In 2015, Dodie Gold Management filed a Commissions Non-Payment Lawsuit against Rossio and sought a jury trial for "damages of more than $25,000 plus a court declaration that they are entitled to the 10% commissions and a full look at the records and accounting of Rossio and his Chamaeleon Productions."[9] In March 2017, Legendary Entertainment announced that Rossio would lead their writers room to help develop the story for Godzilla vs. Kong.[10] He received "story by" credit on the film.[11] In June 2019, Rossio was announced as the screenwriter for The Amazing Maurice.[12]
In February 2023 Ashly Bell and Dr. Bernice A King (daughter of Martin Luther King) announced their intent to executive produce Cash Money, written by Terry Rossio and Kevin Arbouet, concurrent with the launch of ReadLife Entertainment, which plans to create television and film projects centered around strong social messaging. Arbouet is going to direct Cash Money.[14]
Controversy
On November 23, 2018, Rossio expressed his condolences to parents of "vaccine damaged children", however, he likened the term "anti-vax" to a slur equivalent to "nigger." Following immediate outcry, he apologized the day after for using the slur and for proclaiming that both epithets were analogous.[15]
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