Latest in Van Toffler

YouTube has renewed its music series Released for a second season. The new season will kick off with rapper DDG, with upcoming episodes featuring Demi Lovato and Sub Urban to follow. A revival of MTV's TRL, Released premieres every Thursday night at 11:45 pm ET, moments before the artists drop their latest music…

MTV's Total Request Live, better known as TRL and originally hosted by Carson Daly, was one of the cable network's biggest shows during its run between 1998 and 2008. The show aired the most requested music videos of the day as voted for by viewers. However, by 2008, the internet, and particularly YouTube had become…

Gunpowder & Sky has hired David Gale as EVP Development and Production, a role that will see the former MTV Films chief lead a team to develop and produce content across all platforms for the millennial-focused digital studio. The move, effective June 1, reunites him with G&S CEO Van Toffler, his former boss at Viacom…

Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere’s Flavor Unit production company is teaming with Gunpowder & Sky for the teen comedy Paper Chase, in which the Oscar-nominated actress also will appear. The comedy follows Alicia, an ideal-driven, well-meaning New Orleans teenager ready to reinvent herself at the fictional Kensington…

EXCLUSIVE: Sam Raimi will be the architect of one of the early entertainment content shows for NewTV, the new short form venture that Jeffrey Katzenberg founded and Meg Whitman runs as CEO. Sources said that Raimi will be at the center of a new show called 50 States of Fear. Van Toffler and Gunpowder & Sky will…

EXCLUSIVE: Three years after Van Toffler exited as President of MTV Networks Music & Logo Group after a 28-year career at Viacom, he is returning to MTV as a producer. The cable network has given an eight-episode series order to Too Stupid To Die, a reality show from Van Toffler’s Gunpowder & Sky. It is set for a June…

Former Viacom Music Group chief Van Toffler just boosted the distribution and marketing capabilities of his independent video company, Gunpowder & Sky, with the acquisition of FilmBuff. The operation will be renamed Gunpowder & Sky Distribution and will continue to be run by CEO Janet Brown, who becomes the parent…

Former Viacom Media Networks CEO Van Toffler characteristically offers a bold forecast and colorful description of the studio he just founded with help from former Endemol Global Strategy chief Floris Bauer, and Otter Media — Peter Chernin’s joint venture with AT&T. The enterprise, Gunpowder & Sky (G&S), will be “the…

There will be no replacement for departing MTV Networks Music & Logo Group Van Toffler. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman just announced a restructuring, with the company’s three largest TV networks groups — MTV Networks Music & Logo Group, Entertainment Group and Kids & Family Group — consolidated into two under…

UPDATED: Van Toffler, President of MTV Networks Music & Logo Group at Viacom, is departing the company after 28 years. He will be launching a content creation and acquisition company tentatively named Below the Radar. Toffler will be leaving his post in April, but will continue to executive produce a number of…