EXCLUSIVE: Vanguard Films and Animation president and CEO John Williams has locked a deal for screenwriter-author Ross Venokur to write three animated comedy/family feature films. The deal comes after they collaborated on Galaxy High School, a project being developed in partnership with 1492 Films and DreamWorks. “Ross was also a fantastic contributor to crucial drafts of Space Chimps, and he wrote a hilarious CGI/live-action hybrid script for us called The Gnome King,” Williams said. Venokur, who makes his living writing novels for children, starts the new deal with The Nut House, a parody of heist films, with critters as the perpetrators. Venokur will follow with a script called Charming, a revenge comedy about what happens when Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty all end up with Prince Charming — who’s the same guy and who learns the perils of providing happy endings for all three. Venokur’s repped by ICM and Hung Entertainment Group.
