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Van Toffler

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT

Van Toffler Spearheads Creation of New, Millennial-Geared Studio

Former Viacom boss Van Toffler has joined forces with Floris Bauer, who previously served as Global Head of Strategy at Endemol and Otter Media (the digital JV between AT&T and Peter Chernin’s Chernin Group) to form Gunpowder & Sky, a new, L.A.-based studio focused on creating innovative content for the digitally driven generation. Toffler calls it “the defiant lovechild of YouTube, the MCNs and Netflix.”

According to Variety, they've already made deals with a handful of similarly intentioned studios and producers—namely U.K. production studio Realm Pictures, D2C film studio Supergravity Pictures and production firms Bona Fide Productions and Adaptive Studios—with more to be announced shortly.

“I decided a little bit ago to leave a big corporate situation and go back to what I love, which is creating stuff and working with great creative people,” shared G&S CEO Toffler, who—after 28 loyal years—left Viacom (and MTV) nearly a year ago now.

“Gunpowder & Sky is a bold move for us into what we think is the next great opportunity in content production—producing premium groundbreaking video with up-and-coming as well as established writers, directors and talent for primary distribution on emerging platforms,” Chernin Group CEO Peter Chernin announced.

But will Toffler and co. be able to match the success he had at MTV with shows like The Real World, Punk'd, Jackass and more? Only time will tell.

The ball's already rolling. The Gunpowder & Sky team is currently working on a four-minute animation series, 45-second viral videos that feature global sports superstars and DC Trip—a feature film based on Sara Benincasa's book of the same name.

Bauer will serve as the company's president. Stay tuned for key hires, new deals and new projects to be announced shortly. The future certainly looks bright and pixel-filled.

On a coincidental, yet related note, "Gunpowder & Sky" is also the name of the delectable strain of kush we picked up from the club earlier this week.

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