Vice restructures global production business into new Vice Studios Group

Vice Studios Group’s Jamie Hall (left) and Danny Gabai

Embattled youth-skewing Vice Media Group is spinning off its global production operations into a new entity called Vice Studios Group, which will be led by Jamie Hall in London and Danny Gabai in LA.

Vice Studios Group will comprise Vice-owned Pulse Films, the newly named UnTypical (fka Vice Studios), Vice Studios LatAm, Vice Studios Canada and a news documentary unit. It will also boast a distribution catalogue of more than 1,000 hours of content.

London-based Hall and LA-based Gabai have both been elevated to co-presidents to lead the group, reporting to Vice Media Group CEO Bruce Dixon.

Hall has been with Pulse Films since 2018 and was most recently chief operating officer of scripted content, based in the company’s London offices.

Gabai, was previously chief content officer at Vice Studios. Prior to Vice, he was a motion picture agent at WME Entertainment and the William Morris Agency.

Pulse Films produces long and short-form content covering commercials and music videos, scripted film and television series, and music documentaries. Recent credits include Gangs of London currently in its third season for Sky and AMC+, feature film Bad Apples starring Saoirse Ronan, Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now (Netflix), and Victoria’s Secret: The Tour 23 (Amazon).

UnTypical is the new name for the production company formerly known as Vice Studios. The company’s focus will be on global documentaries and formats. Previous work includes Max series Bama Rush, Netflix series Encounters, and the Sean Penn directed documentary film, Superpower.

Vice Studios Canada is focused on factual format series servicing broadcasters such as Vice TV and Bell Media’s Crave. The company has produced a number of series for the Dark Side franchise, including five series of wrestling sensation Dark Side of the Ring, and Dark Side of Comedy, the documentary Qanon: The Search for Q and Tales from the Territories.

Vice Studios LatAm, is dedicated to highlighting Latin American and LatinX stories, specialising in documentary series and other non-scripted formats. The studio is behind Netflix shows 1994 and La Divina Gula (Heavenly Bites).

The move comes after Vice endured a challenging 2023 which began with a major market review that it warned might lead to the closure of its operations in certain countries or markets and ended, Last November, with a corporate restructure and reduced headcount roughly three months after it was acquired out of bankruptcy by a group of its former lenders for around US$350m.

Earlier this month, Morgan Hertzan, Vice Media’s president of global TV, left to pursue “another opportunity,” with Pete Gaffney stepping into the role on an interim basis.

Dixon said: “Leveraging the strengths across our production companies under the Vice brand creates a powerful offering for producers and talent who create content that pushes the boundaries of traditional film and television. Jamie and Danny are the right leaders to drive the Studios’ business forward and lead our incredibly talented teams.”

Gabai and Hall added “The creation of Vice Studios Group positions us for growth, offering unique opportunities to talent and sparking collaborations whilst still remaining true to each company’s strengths and content legacies. We have over 20 productions currently filming, or in the edit, across scripted, non-fiction, news, branded and music docs giving us a robust pipeline and plenty to be excited about.”