NOTE: As has become our custom since we launched this endeavor, we are devoting the last ten days of the year to reprising what we consider to the best of what we’ve mused about in the 355 preceding trips around the sun. But since we’re evolving and we pride ourselves on having a foundation steeped in the reality of actual numbers, as a new wrinkle we’re making our choices with an emphasis on which were outlier performers in terms of Instagram and Substack views.
The story of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group will someday soon make for some interesting subject matter for some advanced media strategy seminar at some university. I oughta know, since when the most recent iteration of it was being put together I actually spent an entire class using it as a prime example of how to successfully combine name brand talent and content into a company ready to take on the brave new world of opportunity.
That was back in early 2019, just after my old boss Steve Mosko (and yes, that’s a big disclaimer) took the reins of VREG, and I was teaching an intrepid and curious group of visiting students from the University of Miami who were spending a semester in the other Hollywood in an attempt to make connections so that they could be part of something like that. And if you were to read or listen to trade media–something Mosko has been particularly adept at throughout his storied career–you might have been racing to e-mail your CV to him. Witness how VARIETY’s veteran Cynthia Littleton gushed at the time:
Steve Mosko is on a mission to build the indie TV studio for the streaming era in his new role as CEO of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group. Mosko, the former Sony Pictures Television chief, details for this week’s episode of Variety‘s “Strictly Business” podcast his mission to build out Village Roadshow into a production entity for original movies and TV shows for the first time in its history. Village Roadshow has access to some exclusive IP through its ownership of the Rysher Entertainment library, among other holdings. Mosko outlines plans to produce two to four movies a year, targeted to streaming services at the start. Village Roadshow also plans to exploit the content library it owns with such disparate titles as “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and “Nash Bridges.”
And that was on top of the brand names that the company had developed on the theatrical side–as a piece authored by THE WRAP’s JD Knapp reminded yesterday, VREG was (t)he production company behind “The Matrix,” “Joker,” “Wonka” and “Ocean’s 8”, as well as 89 titles (that) include “Ready Player One,” “Passengers,” “The Magnificent Seven,” 2016’s “Ghostbusters,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Jupiter Ascending” and “American Sniper,” to name a few.
That’s a lot of brand equity. And over the next couple of years Mosko added some impressive colleagues, including his TV EVP Alix Jaffe and his one-time Sony aide de camp Harry Friedman, the showrunner behind more than three decades of WHEEL OF FORTUNE and JEOPARDY! that served as Mosko’s de facto piggy back during his mercurial rise at Sony that eventually saw him rise from a mere regional syndicator to chairman. And full disclosure yet again: for a while, I was a very small part of it as well. During the most cautious months of COVID lockdowns Mosko afforded me a couple of opportunities to help him build his case for his expansionist vision. I intimately knew just about all of his inventory on both the movie and TV sides and he had ambitious plans to augment it further with yet another rebooting, the classic COLLEGE BOWL series now opportunistically aligned with Capital One as opposed to its historic sponsorship via General Electric. Once again, Mosko orchestrated the press to amplify his quest, as evidenced by FORBES’ Don Yaeger in June 2021:
“I love game shows and quiz shows,” said Mosko. “I enjoyed great fortune, no pun intended, with “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy,” so in my new role at Village Roadshow, I’d been looking for what might be available and what popped into my head was the “GE College Bowl.” Mosko feels confident of the show’s prospects of success if for no other reason than their choice of hosts: the 2021 NFL Hall of Fame inductee Peyton Manning. Mosko says the former Indianapolis Colts All-Universe quarterback was an extraordinary choice not least because of the exemplary leadership skills he brings to the set.
What could go wrong? Well, plenty.
Manning was all accounts an aloof and arrogant set presence resistant to direction, and while the show eked out a second season renewal it was all but an afterthought for NBC, burned off on low-rated Friday nights. NASH BRIDGES, the CBS procedural that proved Don Johnson could chase criminals without rocking pastel hues, was resurrected for exactly one “pilot” episode, a two-hour “movie” which USA also chose to burn off against college football on the Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend.
And that was nothing compared to the drama that was surrounding their big “theatrical” opportunity at that moment. The LOS ANGELES TIMES’ Meg James recounted that roller coaster to her readers yesterday:
In late 2021, Warner Bros. was recalibrating because of the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, then owned by AT&T, was prioritizing gaining subscribers to support its streaming service over its traditional business of releasing movies to cinemas. That’s when it placed “The Matrix Resurrections” on HBO Max. Village Roadshow’s legal battle with Warner Bros. was the last straw. The company’s dispute against Warner Bros. remains unresolved in arbitration — more then three years after the lawsuit was filed. Village Roadshow said it has spent more than $18 million in legal fees to try to resolve the Warner Bros. dispute — fees that remain unpaid.
The fact that THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS was objectively mediocre, as a quick Copilot query confirms, apparently had little to do with Warner Brothers’ decision to pursue an alternative route? Because I guess the VREG executives were, like Neo, existing in some sort of parallel universe?
Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, the production and finance company that has backed the Matrix and Ocean’s franchises, is undergoing a small round of layoffs. The banner, led by CEO Steve Mosko, has cut eight staffers in business affairs, administration, as well as film and TV roles over the course of the past couple of weeks, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The pink slips arrive as the company is exploring strategic options, including taking on more investors.
Which then grew into a rolling boulder just before Christmas, as DEADLINE’s Anthony D’Alessandro and Matt Grobar reported:
Village Roadshow is late on payments to those writers working on their film and TV projects, we hear. As such the WGAW is bound to issue a stop work order to The Matrix franchise and Mad Max Fury Road co-financier and production company. “Village Roadshow is late on paying its writers and a stop work order is imminent if they do not do what’s necessary,” said a WGAW spokesperson to Deadline this morning.
And that ultimately may be why yesterday’s stories by James and Knapp both began with this not unexpected but still sobering news:
Village Roadshow Entertainment has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a dark turn for the once-prolific film financing company that backed the “Joker,” “The Matrix” and “Ocean’s Eleven” movie franchises. Village Roadshow also conceded that its ambitious push into producing independent films and television programs before the pandemic was unprofitable, exacerbating its financial woes.
Exactly how off the rails did things go? James provided some truly staggering statistics on exactly how the moves of Mosko and company added up:
Village Roadshow put into development 99 feature films, 166 scripted television series and 67 unscripted series. Of those, six movies and seven television series went into production. The company said its assets are worth an estimated $100 million to $500 million. But it has more than 200 creditors and debts of $500 million to $1 billion, according to the filing. Village Roadshow owes more than $11 million to Kirkland & Ellis in Los Angeles for professional services. Its debt to the Writers Guild of America West tops $1.4 million. (The WGA put Village Roadshow on its strike list in December for nonpayment.) The filing also shows that Village Roadshow owes Bryan Cranston’s Moonshot Entertainment Inc. $794,000 for development costs and $250,000 to Sony Pictures Television.
That’s a pretty damning scorecard. And also explains more completely why we saw this terse news from, among others, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Umberto Gonzalez. in January:
Village Roadshow CEO Steve Mosko has stepped down following recent layoffs and a pay scandal with the Writer’s Guild.
Quelle surprise. Note to future students: If you’re going to assemble an all-star team of assets and people, make sure that they understand what people actually want before you blame everyone and their uncle for your results.
And yet, Hollywood being Hollywood, there are happy endings for some, if not for the embattled current and former staffers at VREG. Jaffe, for one, has already landed at yet another production company with an odious past, as DEADLINE’s intrepid Nellie Andreeva reported last week:
Miramax has appointed former Village Roadshow, Amigos de Garcia and CBS executive Alix Jaffe as President of Television, effective March 31. She succeeds Marc Helwig who departed the company at the start of 2025 after almost five years. In her new role, Jaffe will oversee teams across Los Angeles, London and Doha, reporting to Jonathan Glickman, CEO of Miramax, which is owned by Qatari-based beIN Media Group and Paramount Global. Miramax’s SVP of Television Development Mirsada Abdool Raman will report to Jaffe.
And in what may be a truly ironic turn of events, even Mosko has found a new home of his own, as VARIETY’s Matt Minton also quietly reported last week:
GreenSlate has appointed veteran entertainment executive Steve Mosko and agency player David Spingarn as board members, bringing years of leadership experience to its team. GreenSlate is a leading provider in the entertainment industry of payroll, accounting and financial services, allowing industry workers to get fairly paid for their time.
You can’t write a script like that. And even if you did, had you been in Mosko’s circle lately, you would still likely be chasing your paycheck for the effort. At least if what’s left of VREG throws Mosko’s new firm a bone, the chances of your finally getting it will improve.
Until next time…
POSTSCRIPT: It’s an unfortunate fact of life these days that plenty of people are losing their media jobs; thanks so much, M&A and AI. We mused about plenty of them in 2025–I dare say we devoted more than a dozen to the departures at Amazon Prime Video, Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount alone. Steve Mosko’s from Village Roadshow just happened to be the one you devoted readers viewed more often than others’. Maybe it’s because if you follow me you may have been more likely to know him; at one time he was literally the driving force behind the resurrection and renaissance of Sony Pictures Television, and indeed I was blessed to have been in his orbit to eventually have had the chance to join him for a memorable ride. The fine folks at Village Roadshow apparently didn’t get such a chance. When one spends more time with lawyers than one does with creatives and, equally as importantly, strategists that can harness raw energy and drive like his in directions with more than a snowball’s chance in Hades of success, that’s a recipe for disappointment and failure. And that’s basically what his tenure produced. That said, he’s still working and based on his past success isn’t in need of thoughts and prayers. I sure hope he gets back to a place where he can offer his.
1 thought on “Best of ’25: End Of The Road(show)?”
355 trips around the Sun ago……You’ve been doing this a VERY LONG TIME in human terms. In fact, 355 trips around the Sun ago,
– Expulsion of Jews from Vienna (July 25, 1670)
Emperor Leopold ordered the expulsion of around 4,000 Jews from Vienna, part of a broader wave of anti-Jewish decrees across Austria.
A trip around the Sun. I don’t think you quite grasp what it means.
Union run public school?
Happy New Year!!
G_d bless America, President Trump, Charlie Kirk, and you.
You’re welcome!
Noah