Exclusive: Film and television production and distribution companies around the world have been affected by layoffs and job cuts this year, and Vice Media Group was no exception. Following the company’s highly publicized bankruptcy in 2022, when it was sold to hedge fund and former investor Fortress for $350 million, the group carried out mass layoffs and restructuring earlier this year, and is currently producing The business, Vice Studio Group, is at the helm. By Jamie Hall in London and Danny Gabai in Los Angeles.
But Hollywood wants a comeback, and Vice Media CEO Bruce Dixon told Deadline in a rare interview that Vice, while small, has a clear vision and the money to spend. He said he was able to recover from the brink. The latter is in the form of impending production financing facilities. We hope to release it by the end of the year.
“There is no question that business is much healthier than it was a year ago,” Dixon said. “One of the things I want to focus on is obviously culture and morale. It’s a tough industry at the moment, but we’ve become a much more nimble company, so I feel positive.”
The vice president said he expects the company to be profitable in the first quarter of 2025. “We’re small, but we’re taking advantage of the opportunities we have now. And more importantly, we’re supported by our investors and board in looking for opportunities.” for growth and exciting projects. . ”
The company is currently operating at 30% of its size compared to the beginning of the year. Mr. Dixon is credited with this lean operation, most notably in Gangs of London, the Saoirse Ronan feature film Bad Apples, the Netflix doc Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now, and the upcoming He is referring to the company’s global production company, Vice Studio Group, which is working on projects such as an upcoming hybrid musical. doc Pavements – means you can better adapt to changing markets. Mr Dixon said the key to this was the introduction of a production finance scheme, which he said was currently at an “advanced stage”.
The London-based executive said he had recently been working on securing production facilities in Los Angeles, which will further the company’s strategy to move its studio business into a “more IP-based” content business and create a “one-stop studio shop.” ”.
“For a long time we were forced to be cameras for hire, and that had more to do with our corporate resources than anything else,” Dixon says. “So, having overcome our highly publicized bankruptcy experience, we are now focused on the benefits of being in the content business.”
He continues: “We recognize that we always had that skill set, but we didn’t have the financial capacity to become a super studio. We’ve never been able to be proactive and involved in projects. It’s hindered us a little bit. It doesn’t hinder our creativity, but it has limited our output. It’s hindering your ability to improve your profits and become more successful in your financial business.”
Gabai, co-president of Vice Studios Group, said the facility will allow Vice to distribute content globally through Kyodo News as streaming services and many premium cable companies “move away from a world where they buy up all the rights.” He says he will be able to compete. -Financing agreements or co-productions. “We do a lot of global manufacturing in the UK and other parts of the world, so it feels like there are more opportunities for windowing,” he says. “There’s an opportunity there for a studio player who can really step into that role and fill in the gaps for work that might be launched from the UK and other regions, and we’re giving them the support they need. We can provide additional resources to go into production. ”
Dixon could not provide further details on the financial system’s numbers or timing, but said he expected it to be launched “before the end of the year.”
“This is a top priority for us and we hope to complete it soon,” he says. “But this opens up more possibilities as a company and allows us to be a little more opportunistic with ideas, while also giving us more certainty about the projects we are working on.”
“Gangs of London”
Vice Media Group exited the online news industry earlier this year, cutting staff to focus on its studio business as well as Vice TV, a joint venture between advertising agencies Virtue and A&E. Meanwhile, Vice Digital, the cultural hub that publishes content on and around Vice’s platform, is based in Nashville, Dixon said, adding that it was a “huge financial burden for us.” It has been relaunched under a new joint venture with Savage Ventures.
vice studio group
One bright spot in the company’s tumultuous 18 months has been its global production business, Vice Studios Group. The company has a distribution catalog of more than 1,000 hours and oversees five premium production companies: Pulse Films, UnTypical, Vice Studios LatAm, Vice Studios Canada, and Vice Studios Canada. Press documentary unit. By the end of 2024, the group plans to produce Pavements, directed by Alex Ross Perry and produced by Pulse Films, and the Sky Original and Pulse Films series Atomic, starring Alfie Allen and Shazad Latif. (the latter completed in Morocco) and plans to produce 21 projects. Last summer.
The company is currently filming season 3 of the British crime drama Gangs of London (seasons 1 and 2 began streaming on Netflix in September as part of a broader deal with AMC Networks). The documentary “Ol’Dirty Bastard” directed by Jason Pollard was also premiered. “A Tale of Two Dirtys” at the British Dock and Roll Film Festival. Vice Studios and Viral Nation recently announced the development of an unscripted series, “Montana Boys,” about TikTok cowboys Caleb Winterbrun, Mark Estes, and Cade Wilcox.
“This will be our biggest production year ever, which is crazy considering we are coming out of bankruptcy,” Gabai says. “This happened in a very tough market with all the headwinds going on around us, and now those headwinds are behind us.”
Gabai noted that he and fellow co-president Hall had restructured the studio business when Vice Studios and Pulse merged several years before the bankruptcy. “I think the studio has operated to some extent over the last few years with the benefit of a very tight-knit group of people,” he says.
The studio business’ manifesto is to focus on director-driven talent. “We tend to work with really good filmmakers, and oftentimes even if they aren’t big names yet when we start working with them, they tend to grow into big names.” We decided on the name after working on a project together.”
This year, Vice reunited with Fyre documentarian Chris Smith for Devo, a doc about the band of the same name that launched at Sundance earlier this year. The company also announced the fall of Zach Horwitz, the charismatic “Midwestern Millennial Madoff” who ran a $690 million pyramid scheme in front of his inner circle, directed by Tiger King director Rebecca Chaiklin. He also creates Hollywood endings in his “atypical” series. . The latter was adopted by Amazon MGM.
“When I was an agent, I used to say that talented people are always talented,” Gabai says. “Whether someone is having a hot moment or a cold moment, whether they’re making millions at once, or when they haven’t worked in years, if someone really If someone is talented and approaches their project in an interesting way, then that’s the person.” We want to bet on that. ”
“pavement”
It was this vision that eventually led Vice Studios to bring on Listen Up Phillip director Ross Perry to create Pavements, a documentary/fiction hybrid about Stephen Malkmus’ venerable American indie rock band Pavements. That was the reason why he became a director. Pavement is best known for songs such as “Cut Your Hair” and “Stereo” released on Matador Records.
The project, produced by Pulse Films, premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month and will have its UK premiere today at the London Film Festival, as the band prepares for a sold-out reunion tour in 2022. It provides an intimate view of the tour, and at the same time takes the audience behind the scenes of the tour. A musical, a museum, and the making of a parody Hollywood biopic. Jason Schwartzman plays Chris Lombardi, the founder of Matador Records, and Joe Keery plays Malkmus.
Matador Records and Pavement wanted to do something “completely different,” says Gabai, “and felt this was a good opportunity to take a piss out of the standard music documentary.”
“Alex is a director at the top of my list, and Stephen seems like a character that Alex would have written and created,” Gabai says.
Ross Perry said he was drawn to the film’s “big, structural conceits”. David Bowie, that’s true for hundreds of thousands of people,” he says. “In the spirit of the band, we wanted to put this whole effort in quotes the same way you put quotes around the idea of a band being successful.”
Gabai said Pavements is a prime example of a project Vice Studios is looking to support in the future. “For us, the filmmakers always come first. Everything we do is driven by the filmmakers, showrunners, or creators at the heart of the project, and they are the ones who have the material for that project. It depends on what they want to do and what they want to say about this crazy world we live in while doing it. It’s fun and interesting.”
