- Avi Lerner
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Avi Lerner Born October 13, 1947
Haifa, IsraelOccupation Film producer Avinoam Lerner (born 13 October 1947) is an Israeli-born film producer, primarily of American action movies.
Contents
Life and career
Lerner originally worked in movie theaters in Tel Aviv, but soon re-located to South Africa, where he produced several films in that country and also owned a chain of movie theaters there until he re-located once again to Los Angeles in the early 1990s. In 1991, he served as President of the independent production/distribution company, Global Pictures.
Lerner founded two production companies, Nu Image and Millennium Films with Trevor Short, Danny Dimbort, and Danny Lerner. The companies have a varied output, though the vast majority are action films. Most of the action films Avi produces are filmed in Bulgaria, where he owns a studio.
Nu Image & Millennium Films bought independent film studio First Look Studios and have restructured the organization to distribute their specialty films.
Nu Image has recently produced the 2010 family film Cool Dog with First Look, as Millennium Films recently produced Drive Angry.
Action stars
The bulk of Lerner's films featured action stars who were at their peak in the late 1980s-1990s: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, and Chuck Norris, usually released as direct-to-video. Lerner produced Rambo starring Sylvester Stallone, and Righteous Kill starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for Millennium Films and Emmett Furla Films.[1] He produced The Expendables, directed by Stallone.
Other features Lerner has had a hand in include: End Game, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and James Woods; Edison, starring Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, and Justin Timberlake, 16 Blocks, The Black Dahlia, The Wicker Man, and even Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, starring Nicolas Cage. He is also listed as a producer in the thriller Trespass.
On August 2011, while asian superstar Donnie Yen was having a vacation with his family in the states, he reportedly received an invitation by Avi Lerner to star in The Expendables 2. It was stated that Donnie Yen is considering the offer, and has many films at hand, and will not decide until he sees if the script appeals to him or not.[2]
References
- ^ "De Niro, Pacino Team for Indie Movie". http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-05-17.
- ^ "Donnie Yen Joining The Cast Of THE EXPENDABLES 2?". Twitch Films. August 21. 2011. http://twitchfilm.com/news/2011/08/donnie-yen-joining-the-cast-of-the-expendables-2.php. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
External links
Categories:- 1947 births
- American film producers
- American Jews
- Israeli film producers
- Israeli Jews
- Living people
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