Steve Mosko, the CEO of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group since 2018, is stepping down, Deadline has confirmed.
The news comes amid apparent financial troubles at the finance and production company’s majority owner Vine Alternative Investments, though Vine did not comment on Mosko’s exit Thursday. Mosko was hired as CEO in 2018 after a 24-year career at Sony and 16 as SPT’s boss, as Village looked to push into TV and streaming.
VREG, the umbrella company of Village Roadshow Pictures and Village Roadshow Television, has credits that include Joker and Mad Max: Fury Road.
In late December, it came to light that Village Roadshow was late on payments to writers working on their film and TV projects, and the WGA West issued a stop-work order.
“It has come to the Guild’s attention that over the last few months Village Roadshow hasn’t paid writers on numerous projects,” the guild told members at the time. “Village Roadshow owes writers compensation, interest, and benefit contributions but has refused to pay. As such, the Guild has determined that Village Roadshow is not reliable or financially responsible and requires the posting of a bond to protect writers. Village Roadshow has, to date, refused to do so. As a result, Village Roadshow is on the WGA strike list until further notice.”
Deadline had heard at the time the financial issues were temporary.
However, as Deadline reported, Village Roadshow was fielding offers for a new majority stakeholder in its company, which counts a half billion-plus library of film and TV titles, many co-shared with Warner Bros. Village Roadshow, which has also been behind such TV series as College Bowl With Peyton Manning and USA Network’s Nash Bridges movie with Don Johnson.
Vine, led by managing partner Jim Moore, is a specialized asset manager focused on investments in media and entertainment. In a big deal last summer it sold a massive portfolio of film, television and music ownership rights to Shamrock Capital.
The Wall Street Journal broke the news of Mosko’s exit earlier today.
