Collaboration
Paul and Daurio began collaborating in 1999. They met when Paul wrote a musical for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints's 150-year celebration of the pioneers' arrival in Utah, in which Daurio was one of the leads.
Hitting it off, having similar senses of humor, they formed a band called the Otter Pops, playing at local outdoor malls. Within a year they sold their first script, and a year later their second script, Bubble Boy, was made into a film, which was a critical and commercial failure. To get noticed, they used to sing story pitches to film producers. Although not always successful, this strategy resulted in several produced films, including Bubble Boy and College Road Trip (2008).
They were personally chosen by Audrey Geisel, the widow of Dr. Seuss, to write the screenplay for the film Horton Hears a Who!, an animated adaptation of the children's book Horton Hears a Who!, for Blue Sky Studios via 20th Century Fox Animation, led by Chris Meledandri. In 2007, when Meledandri founded the production company Illumination Entertainment, Paul and Daurio followed him.
At Illumination, they wrote screenplays for the highly-successful animated film Despicable Me and its sequels, Despicable Me 2 and Despicable Me 3. They also wrote for Illumination's other films, the live action/animated Easter-themed Hop and adapted the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax into a film.
When Paul and Daurio were screenwriting partners, they preferred to work independently. They divided up scenes and read pages to each other, trying to make each other laugh. Paul, having an education in screenwriting, generally worked on scenes that contain emotion and require the three-act structure, while Daurio, being a more visually oriented person, usually did scenes with action, sight gags and physical comedy. Both being members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, their beliefs have had significant impact on their careers. They prefer "to write movies that are uplifting, optimistic and for everybody," while avoiding being "preachy".
The pair adapted Bubble Boy into a stage musical featuring original songs, for which an original cast recording was released on Sh-K-Boom Records in 2017, produced by Paul, Justin Goldner and Kurt Deutsch.
On January 29, 2018, Paul and Daurio were hired to write a film adaptation of Birthright for Universal Pictures and Skybound Entertainment.
