Vanguard appoints new vice presidents

Lighter and McDougall upped

By PAUL KARON

Vanguard Films, the feature and television production company behind the Brad Pitt starrer "Seven Years in Tibet," has put its Gotham and Los Angeles offices under two new vice presidents of development and production: Gwen Lighter and Brandi McDougall.

Lighter will head development and production in Vanguard's New York office, while McDougall will hold the same duties in the Los Angeles headquarters.

Lighter and McDougall will be responsible for bringing in new projects, as well as for developing the current production slate. For the last 2-1/2 years, Vanguard has had a first-look deal at DreamWorks.

Before opening Vanguard's Gotham office, Lighter worked in development and production for Robert De Niro's Tribeca Prods. She has also worked at Baltimore Pictures.

McDougall previously worked as a creative exec in co-productions and acquisitions for 20th Century Fox. She also served as an assistant to Tom Rothman at Fox Searchlight and at Fox. Other positions include story analyst at Jodie Foster's Egg Pictures.

At the same time, Eric Bennett, a Vanguard employee since 1995, has been upped to vice president. Bennett brought Van-guard the sci-fi thriller "Legacy," originally written by Rob Moreland and now being rewritten by Robert Kamen for United Artists.

Vanguard currently has the animated feature "Shrek" in production for DreamWorks and is developing "Galaxy High School 2000," the Greg Poirier-penned "After Man" and Moreland's "Pink Slip" for the studio.