PalmStar Entertainment has announced the addition of 2 new film industry executives in its New York office to support the continued expansion of its film production division. Courtney Andrialis and Jonathan Shukat have joined PalmStar Entertainment as Development and Production Executives. They are based in New York and report to Kevin Frakes CEO of PalmStar Entertainment.

“We’re thrilled to have Courtney and Jonathan join our team,” said Kevin Frakes, CEO and co-founder. “We are confident they will be a tremendous asset to our company as we gear up for continuous film productions in the upcoming months.”

Courtney Andrialis worked in development and production at New York based companies HDNet Films and Open City, both founded and run by producers Jason Kliot and Joana Vicente. Co-founded by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban, HDNet was the first all HD production shingle in the US. Under that banner, Andrialis served as a creative executive on numerous films including Zoe Cassavetes’ “Broken English” starring Parker Posey, Drea DeMatteo, Gena Rowlands, Brian DePalma’s Iraq drama “Redacted”, and Alex Gibney’s upcoming documentary “Hunter Thompson”. At Open City, Andrialis helped run development for Deutsch/Open City Films, where advertising mogul Donny Deutsch was a partner, served as creative executive on Joby Harold’s “Awake” starring Jessica Alba, Hayden Christiansen, Terrence Howard, soon to be released by The Weinstein Company, and was instrumental in the development of the upcoming “Infinite Jest” to be directed by Sam Jones, and Nicole Holofcener’s “Me, Too.” Andrialis has a BFA in Film and Television Production from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.

Jonathan Shukat was the set assistant to GreeneStreet Films producers John Penotti and Fisher Stevens on their films “Awake” starring Jessica Alba, Terrance Howard and director Michael Ian Black’s “Wedding Daze” starring Jason Biggs and Isla Fisher. Jonathan also assisted at GreeneStreet in development, foreign sales and investor relations. Shukat directed and produced the documentary short, “Only Seconds Left”, which was accepted out of competition to the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. He also co-wrote and produced the short, “Something of Value”, that is currently being submitted to film festivals. Shukat attended Columbia University.

PalmStar Entertainment is an independent film company based in New York and Los Angeles, founded in 2004 by Kevin Frakes. PalmStar is focused on developing literary driven properties and raises independent production financing for its smaller budgeted films. PalmStar is in pre-production for the feature film adaptation of Paolo Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die starring Kate Bosworth, directed by BAFTA award-winning Emily Young from a script by Larry Gross (“We Don’t Live Here Anymore”) and Roberta Hanley. PalmStar is developing a feature film adaptation of Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film into a feature length comedy. Ken Bowser (”Easy Riders, Raging Bulls”) is attached to direct. Additionally, PalmStar optioned and is developing Bret Easton Ellis’ International bestseller Lunar Park and recently sold and distributed its first two features, “Fifty Pills” and “Premium”. For more information, please visit http://www.palmstar.com

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PALMSTAR BRANCHES WITH S2 ENTERTAINMENT
-Development and Casting Office Opens in NYC-

LOS ANGELES, CA (May 2nd, 2007) PalmStar Entertainment expands to the East Coast with S2 Entertainment, a new development and casting office in New York City (36 East 20th Street, 3rd Fl, NYC 10003). S2 Entertainment co-founders Sig De Miguel and Stephen Vincent will head the new PalmStar branch and will report to PalmStar’s co-founder Kevin Frakes.

S2 Entertainment will concentrate on developing new projects for PalmStar and will also serve as the in-house casting for all their feature film projects. Sig De Miguel and Stephen Vincent formed S2 Entertainment in January 2006 with the mission to cast and produce high quality independent films. Over the past year, the duo has served as casting directors on eight independent films including “The Narrows” starring Kevin Zegers, Vincent D’Onofrio and Sophia Bush, produced by Leslie Urdang (“The Great New Wonderful”, “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”); “The Ministers” starring John Leguizamo and Harvey Keitel, directed by Franc. Reyes; “The Passage” starring Stephen Dorff, produced by Lynette Howell (“Half Nelson”) and the upcoming Universal Pictures release, “Illegal Tender” directed by Franc. Reyes and produced by John Singleton.

Sig De Miguel of S2 Entertainment worked alongside Amanda Mackey and Cathy Sandrich Gelfond for six years where they cast such feature films as the award winning, critically acclaimed “United 93” directed by Paul Greengrass; “The Good Shepherd”, Robert De Niro’s epic film starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, “The Lost City” starring and directed by Andy Garcia; “The Cooler” starring William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin and Maria Bello; “A Love Song For Bobby Long” starring John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson; “The Matador” starring Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis; “The Man” starring Samuel L. Jackson and “P.S.” starring Laura Linney and Topher Grace among others. With Mackey Sandrich he also cast the upcoming releases “Chapter 27” starring Jared Leto and Lindsay Lohan; “Fierce People” starring Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland and “Brooklyn Rules” starring Alec Baldwin and Freddie Prinze Jr. Sig’s other recently completed films include “Where God Left His Shoes” starring John Leguizamo and Leonor Varela, “A Crime” starring Harvey Keitel and Emmanuelle Beart and “Premium” starring Zoe Saldana and Dorian Missick.

Stephen Vincent of S2 Entertainment is a casting director who, prior to teaming with Sig, served as casting associate under Bonnie Timmermann. Over six years, he worked on movies such as “Black Hawk Down”, directed by Ridley Scott; “Spy Game” with Brad Pitt and Robert Redford; “Pearl Harbor” with Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett; “Coyote Ugly”; “The Insider” with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe, and “Armageddon”. He has cast independent films such as “Once in the Life” directed by Laurence Fishburne; “London” starring Jessica Biel and Jason Statham and a film version of the off-Broadway play, “Bug”, starring Ashley Judd and being directed by William Friedkin. Stephen also served as director of development under Ms. Timmermann who recently produced “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus”, starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr., “London”; the upcoming film “Georgia Rule” starring Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman and Jane Fonda and “The Rule of Nines” starring Terrence Howard and to be directed by Bobby Moresco, co-writer of “Crash”.

PalmStar Entertainment is an independent film company based in New York and Los Angeles, founded in 2004 by Kevin Frakes. PalmStar is focused on developing literary driven properties and raises independent production financing for its smaller budgeted films. PalmStar is developing a feature film adaptation of Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film into a feature length comedy. Ken Bowser (”Easy Riders, Raging Bulls”) is attached to direct. Additionally, PalmStar optioned and is developing Bret Easton Ellis’ International bestseller Lunar Park and recently sold and distributed its first two features, “Fifty Pills” and “Premium”. For more information, please visit http://www.palmstar.com/.

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By Noralil Ryan Fores

Original article: http://www.moviemaker.com/blog/?p=394

Before he fell into producing movies, Kevin Scott Frakes’ first love was playing baseball. “I grew up obsessed with the game and didn’t really think about much else. Everything was dictated by my desire to play pro ball,” Frakes admits. As so often happens with athletes, though, Frakes had to reinvent himself after a series of injuries dashed his hopes of playing professionally. “I thought about law school. I thought about coaching baseball,” he enumerates, but Frakes’ future ultimately was decided by a strange twist of fate. “A good friend cast me in a short film,” he explains.“I had always loved movies, and my brother and I quoted our favorites all of the time, but I never had a sense of what it would be like to work in the industry until my friend cast me.”

After studying at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts’ film program and then heading to Yale University to pursue an MBA, Frakes collaborated with Stephan Paternot to found PalmStar Entertainment. With the option deal settled for Kevin Pollak’s film adaptation of Buzz Bissinger’s best-selling 3 Nights in August—a peek into the world of the St. Louis Cardinals and their dynamic manager Tony La Russa—Frakes gets to touch base with his childhood dreams. “It re-opened a world for me that I had loved in the past and was now a part of again,” he says. “I suppose there are some great ancillary benefits to my job.”

For more information on Kevin Scott Frakes and PalmStar Entertainment, visit his website.

Sound Off: Much like Kevin Scott Frakes, many moviemakers don’t take the obvious route leading to their careers in the film world. (For instance, Johnny Depp made his way to L.A. as the frontman for an underground garage band and had plans for making it big in music before a chance meeting with Nicolas Cage turned him on to acting). What other stories about moviemakers’ backgrounds do you find interesting? Talk back in the comments section of our blog!

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