Beach House takes Vesuvius stake

L-R: Hyoe Yamamoto, Deborah Barillas and Felix Feng

Blue Ant Studios-owned Beach House Pictures (BHP) has expanded its operations in Asia Pacific with the acquisition of a majority stake in Tokyo-based production company Vesuvius Pictures.

Vesuvius Pictures co-founders Hyoe Yamamoto and Deborah Barillas will maintain a minority stake in the company and their roles as creative director and MD respectively. Both will report to Jocelyn Little, MD of BHP, and Donovan Chan, creative director of BHP, whose headquarters are in Singapore.

Founded in 2021, Vesuvius Pictures specialises in premium original factual, factual entertainment, reality and scripted programming, with credits including an episode of Alex Gibney’s Dirty Money for Netflix.

BHP in China has also appointed Felix Fang as general manager to support the company’s growing slate of China-based productions for local audiences.

Before joining BHP in China, Fang was a senior producer at Youku. He was also previously director of business development at Discovery Channels China and senior producer for NHNZ China.

Chan said: “China and Japan are two of the world’s fastest-growing TV markets and if you take the future of premium content seriously, you would want to be there. With this latest expansion, BHP is poised for significant growth in 2021 and beyond.”