Vanguard Deals with Stevenson, Moviemill

Vanguard Films has announced an overall deal with Kung Fu Panda co-director John Stevenson to produce and direct animated and live-action films.

Headed by CEO and president John Williams — a producer on the original Shrek — Vanguard also announced an alliance with Moviemill to arrange financing for its projects. Moviemill is a new company founded by Peter Rogers, former president of Lakeshore International.

“I’m thrilled that Vanguard’s exciting new range of projects is attracting such top filmmakers and business partners as John Stevenson and Peter Rogers,” says Williams.

Stevenson’s first directing project for Vanguard will be the live action/CGI hybrid film Alien Rock Band, with musician Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics attached as a producer. The movie is about a garage band from Earth that journeys across the universe to qualify for an intergalactic battle of the bands.

Stevenson, whose credits include Shrek, Madagascar and James and the Giant Peach, also will direct Vanguard’s CG-animated film Rotten Island, based on the book by Shrek author William Steig, about an island where monsters reign free until a beautiful flower changes everything.

Among the Vanguard titles that Williams and Stevenson will produce are:

• Buzby, an animated romantic comedy starring fruit flies, written by Jason Mayland with Annie Award-winner Phil Robinson (Hubert’s Brain) attached to direct.
• City of Dragons a live-action martial arts tale with supernatural elements set in modern day Shanghai, written by Rob Moreland (Space Chimps),

Atomic Circus, a live-action fantasy adventure story featuring a fast-talking con-man in a post-apocalyptic world, written by Athena Gam.

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