Vice Studios Canada to operate under rejigged Vice Studios Group

The newly established Vice Studios Group is led by co-presidents Jamie Hall and Danny Gabai.

Vice Studios Canada has been named as one of five labels operating under the newly formed Vice Studios Group.

The unit is based in Toronto and is overseen by L.A.-based Guillermo Garcia, executive in charge of production, North America, a spokesperson for Vice Media Group told Playback Daily.

The Canadian arm is focused on factual format series for platforms such as Vice TV and Crave. Productions include the Dark Side franchise, including Dark Side of the Ring and Dark Side of Comedy, and the documentary Qanon: The Search for Q.

Vice Studios Group will run under the joint leadership of newly named co-presidents Jamie Hall in London and Danny Gabai in L.A.

Hall (pictured left) most recently served as chief operating officer of scripted content for Pulse Films, working out of the company’s London offices. Gabai (pictured right), meanwhile, was previously chief content officer of the now-renamed Vice Studios, where he helped build the label’s business and slate across feature films and premium scripted and unscripted TV. He has also served as producer on such projects as the Oscar-nominated Flee and Chris Smith’s emmy-nominated Netflix documentaries Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond.

The other four units under Vice Studios Group include UnTypical, the production company formerly known as Vice Studios. The newly rechristened label will focus on global documentaries and formats, following on from such recent titles as the ESPN 30 for 30 entry The American Gladiators Documentary and the Sundance premieres The Gospel According to Tammy Faye and Devo.

Pulse Films will remain as a label and will continue producing both long- and short-form content across commercials, music videos, scripted film and TV, and music documentaries. Recent unscripted projects from the prodco include Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now for Netflix and Victoria’s Secret: The Tour 23 for Prime Video.

Rounding out the studios group are Vice Studios LatAm, which specializes in docuseries and unscripted formats, and Vice’s long-form documentary team, which won an RTS Award earlier this year for Stealing Ukraine’s Children.

“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,” said Vice Media Group CEO Bruce Dixon in a statement. “Jamie and Danny are the right leaders to drive the studios’ business forward and lead our incredibly talented teams.”

Vice’s move to restructure its studios business comes in the wake of another slew of high-profile departures from the company, with television head Morgan Hertzan and distribution chief Bea Hegedus both stepping down this month. Vice Media was acquired by a group of buyers, led by Fortress Investment Group, last year after filing for bankruptcy.

A version of this story originally appeared in Realscreen

With files from Kelly Townsend