GARY CHAPMAN (Director) makes his directorial debut with Valiant. A Native of Manchester, England, he created displays for many major British museums. At the beginning of the nineties he moved to Los Angeles and found himself, by accident, in the film business.

His film concept Junk was the subject of a bidding war and is now in development at Warner Brothers. He is currently working on several children’s shows.

JOHN H. WILLIAMS (Producer) served as a producer on the Academy Award winning animated comedies Shrek and Shrek 2 and was the person responsible for optioning the original book by William Steig upon which the first movie was based.

Williams’ producing credits include the DreamWorks Jackie Chan movie The Tuxedo, Seven Years in Tibet with Brad Pitt, the ESPN cable movie The Junction Boys, and the soon to be completed all CG animated film, Happily N’ever After, starring Sarah Michelle Geller and Freddie Prinze, Jr.

Williams is president of Vanguard Films, which he started after a three-year stint at PBS. Vanguard’s first production was the Steppenwolf Theater’s New York premiere of True West, starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise. The company subsequently produced The Grapes of Wrath, with Gary Sinise, and Clifford Odets’ Rocket to the Moon, pairing John Malkovich and Judy Davis.

Other Vanguard credits include A.R. Gurney’s The Dining Room; G.B. Shaw’s Heartbreak House with Rex Harrison and Amy Irving; The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, starring Tom Hulce, under the direction of Emile Ardolino; Balloon Farm with Mara Wilson, Rip Torn and Laurie Metcalf; and an off-Broadway New Orleans Rhythm & Blues musical entitled Staggerlee.

Past feature films produced under the Vanguard banner include Sarafina, and the Erroll Morris feature documentary The Thin Blue Line, with American Playhouse and Channel Four/U.K. The company has also produced documentaries on John F. Kennedy, Aretha Franklin, George Gershwin, and the History of the Blues, as well as live performance concert films with Spalding Gray, Culture Club and The Thompson Twins. In addition, Vanguard has also produced commercials through a joint venture production company with Virgin Records called Virgin Image.

CURTIS AUGSPURGER & BUCKLEY COLLUM (Co-Producers) head up the physical production team. They are the founding partners of Menace FX and have shown unparalleled success in establishing and maintaining production organizations with a focus on animation and creative development. Their vision and experience has helped develop and implement a digital production paradigm proven capable of delivering the highest theatrical-quality projects and feature-length films on-time and at an approachable price-point.

Augspurger earned his undergraduate degree in architecture from Washington University in St Louis cum laude and earned his Master’s degree in Architecture from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Augspurger entered production in 1990 when he pioneered the use of digital production for Columbia University in New York. Since then he has continued to seek and find new and innovative ways to enhance artistic productivity with computer technology, while maintaining his high artistic ideals. He has contributed as part of production and management teams at Dreamworks, Cinesite, Dream Pictures Studio, and Menace FX, before becoming a key member of the management team of Vanguard Animation.

Collum earned his degree in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech and continues to utilize his problem solving skills and can-do enthusiasm in the world of production. His early work in production started in 1989 supporting various production companies in the development of their digital production pipelines. Later, he moved directly into production working at Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital and then Dream Pictures Studio, before co-founding Menace FX and later helping build Vanguard Animation.

Collum and Augspurger met at Dream Pictures Studio while serving as team leaders working on the US-Japan co-production Hopper. Later they founded Menace FX and continued to produce digital content on film and broadcast projects for numerous production companies across the US and in Europe. Their eclectic, out-of-the-box approach to digital effects and film production has garnered them management, production and consulting experience with companies as diverse as Sony Entertainment, Warner Brothers Digital, Disney Imagineering, ILM, Electronic Arts, Acclaim Entertainment, NBC, Paramount Pictures, Cinesite, Dreamworks, Weta, Nickelodeon and Dream Picture Studios. Beginning in 2002, they partnered with John H. Williams to help create Vanguard Animation and implemented the production paradigm which helped deliver its first feature-length animated film, Valiant, on a two-year schedule for $40M.

ERIC M. BENNETT (Co-Producer) started working with John Williams at Vanguard Films in 1996, where he eventually became Vice President of Production and Development. In that capacity, Bennett helped oversee the creative development of Vanguard’s projects including, Shrek, Seven Years in Tibet and The Tuxedo.

He is responsible for continuing to oversee all creative affairs with Williams, as well as assisting with supervising the operations, finance and business and legal affairs of Vanguard.

In addition to Valiant, Bennett is currently Co-Producer on Vanguard’s The Twits, both being distributed by Disney.

Bennett received his undergraduate education at the University of California where he studied Psychology. He holds an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business where he was named a Stern Scholar in recognition of academic excellence.

BARNABY THOMPSON (Executive Producer) is also the Head of Ealing Studios. Thompson oversees all aspects of the Studios activities, focusing primarily on the creative aspect of the group as well as actively producing a number of films each year. He has extensive experience in both television and film in the UK and in America, and his films have grossed over $500 million in worldwide box office.

Thompson co-founded Fragile Films with Uri Fruchtmann in 1996. The first film produced by Fragile was Spiceworld, starring the Spice Girls. Released in 1997, it was an international box office hit, grossing $90 million worldwide, to become the fifth highest grossing British movie of all time.

In 1998, he produced An Ideal Husband, starring Cate Blanchett and Rupert Everett. It grossed over $40 million internationally and was nominated for two Golden Globes, received three BAFTA nominations and was the closing film at the Cannes Film Festival.

He then went on to executive produce the comedy hit Kevin and Perry Go Large. In 2001, through Fragile Films first look deal with Disney, Thompson produced High Heels and Low Lifes and for FilmFour, Miramax and Paramount, Lucky Break.

The following year, he produced The Importance of Earnest starring Rupert Everett, Reese Witherspoon and Judi Dench. It was the first film to be released under the “Ealing Studios presents” in half a century and was distributed by Miramax. This was followed by the romantic comedy Hope Springs, released by Disney in 2003.

Prior to founding Fragile Films, Thompson worked in the US as Vice President, Creative Affairs at Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video, the New York company that makes Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. There he co-produced The Kids in the Hall, Brain Candy which was nominated for four Canadian Genies, Tommy Boy, Lassie directed by Daniel Petrie, Coneheads starring Dan Ackroyd and the hugely successful Wayne’s World 1 and 2 with Mike Myers.

Before moving to America in 1990, Thompson ran the UK-based independent production company World’s End Productions. There he produced and directed many award-winning documentary films, including Jimi Hendrix for the South Bank Show, which won the Silver Plaque at the Chicago Film Festival, and The Forgotten Holocaust, which received the Silver Medal at the New York Film Festival. He also produced Dear Rosie, a short film which was nominated for both British and American Academy Awards.

MARCI LEVINE (Associate Producer) began working in the industry as a freelance production manager and Associate producer in television. From 1989 to 1996 she was a production accountant at the Walt Disney Studios, working on such films as Taking Care of Business, White Fang, Newsies, What About Bob?, Captain Ron, Life with Mikey and the animated Hunchback of Notre Dame. She then went to Pixar as production representative on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2 and Monsters Inc. She worked as a production consultant to PDI and Sony before joining Valiant.

GEORGE WEBSTER (Writer) began his career in advertising, working for Saatchi and Saatchi. He became a full time writer four years ago. Valiant will be his first screenplay to be filmed.

His second feature, Mr Concrete Slippers, is backed by The Film Consortium. It will be directed by Elliot Hegarty and stars Kris Marshall and Laura Fraser.

He is currently in talks with the BBC for a Richard Curtis style parody and his ambition is to take Hollywood by storm...

JIM STEWART (Editor) was nominated for an A.C.E. Award for Best Edited Feature Film for the Disney production of Monsters Inc.

He recently worked on the features Toy Story 2 and Just a Little Harmless Sex. In 1996, he received an Emmy nomination for Best Editing for the CBS/Fox TV series Chicago Hope.

For his work in documentaries, he is the recipient of Academy Award Nominations for HBO productions Death On The Job (1991) and Crack USA / County Under Siege (1989). His recent television credits include episodes of Fantasy Island, Early Edition, Life Goes On, The Wonder Years, Mr Sterling, and Sweet Justice, Movies of the Week Rise And Walk: The Dennis Byrd Story and Thicker Than Water: The Latty McLinden Story.

GEORGE FENTON (Composer) Born in London, the acclaimed composer began in the film industry in 1971 with compositions for smaller, low budget movies and television series before working on the award-winning series The Jewel in the Crown. His prolific career has seen him receive many awards including Oscar nominations for Gandhi, Cry Freedom, Dangerous Liaisons and The Fisher King. He received an Emmy and a BAFTA Award for his score of The Blue Planet (2002) and BAFTA Awards for The Monocled Mutineer (1986) and Bergerac (1981). He was also awarded BMI Film Music Awards for Sweet Home Alabama, You’ve Got Mail and Groundhog Day. Other notable composing credits include 84 Charing Cross Road, Memphis Belle, Born Yesterday, Shadowlands, The Madness of King George, Interview with the Vampire, The Crucible, Ever After, Dangerous Beauty, Deep Blue and Center Stage.