Gangs of London Producers Suing Vice for $20M — Here's What Went Down

Thomas Benski and Marisa Clifford, the masterminds behind Gangs of London, are taking Vice Media to court. They claim the media company owes them over $20 million from a messy corporate transaction that went south.

The backstory: Vice grabbed a majority stake in Pulse Films (the production company behind the show) back in 2016. Then in December 2021, Vice supposedly bought out Benski and Clifford's remaining stake for $10 million in cash plus $43.24 million in loan notes. Sounds clean on paper — it wasn't.

Now the producers are arguing Vice didn't hold up its end of the bargain. The money owed sits somewhere north of $20 million. This is the kind of deal where the handshake mattered less than the fine print, and apparently Vice thought it could get away with not paying.

Gangs of London became one of HBO's standout shows, which makes this lawsuit feel even more like a power move gone wrong. When major studios acquire indie talent, somebody always ends up bitter. This time it's the actual creators calling out their old partner for coming up short.

Read the full story at Deadline → https://deadline.com/2026/09/gangs-of-london-producers-sue-vice-media-1237109903/