Five-time Emmy winner Joe Hill has launched Dangerous Company, a new independent film studio based in Los Angeles that will develop both narrative and nonfiction film and television projects. Hill will serve as the company’s president and head of development, with producer Emmy Briggs taking on the role of director of distribution.
Hill, a former producer for Vice News whose previous films have aired on HBO, Showtime, and Vice TV, is launching the venture with backing from Indonesian-based QUN Films, a subsidiary of QUN Holdings.
His Emmy wins include Outstanding Arts, Culture or Entertainment Coverage for “Inside the Pedophilic Manga Industry in Japan” (2023), Best News Coverage—Long Form and Best Video Journalism for “Return of the Taliban” on Showtime (2022), Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Newscast for “American Uprising – Coverage of George Floyd protests” (2021), and Outstanding Newscast for “Vice News Tonight” (2021).
The partnership is designed to help Dangerous Company build an international team and maximize global reach through a digital-first distribution approach.
“Dangerous Company was founded on the belief that stories are our most necessary tool to navigate the world, especially in difficult times like these,” Hill said. “Our partnership with QUN Films gives us the global reach to scale that vision internationally without losing the heart that drives us.”
The studio’s inaugural slate kicks off with “Match In A Haystack,” a feature-length documentary that follows an innovative Ukrainian female dance group as they attempt to create their first show since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The project is executive co-produced with Vice News and Bill and Mary Way’s Fit Via Vi (behind Nat Geo’s “Sugarcane” and HBO’s “Reality”) with support from the Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting. The score is composed by Oscar-winning Ukrainian-American composer Katya Richardson (“The Last Repair Shop”).
“Dangerous Company and QUN films both share a vision of storytelling that aims to reach an audience around the world, and this partnership is one big step toward doing it,” said QUN Films founder Axel Hadiningrat.
“Match in a Haystack” is slated for a limited theatrical run this summer with a wider release planned for fall. The studio’s developing slate also includes the documentary “First Light,” filmed in the Arctic Circle; an untitled narrative feature co-directed by Hill and Andrew Richardson (“Lord Of The Rings, Ponies”) and produced by Diego Najera, a former Participant Media executive; and a limited series currently in production in Africa.
QUN Films, founded by Hadiningrat with Giovanni Rahmadeva serving as managing partner, has a co-production of Taiwanese film “Our Son” set to premiere at the Locarno Film Festival.
Read the full article here
