Jeremy Renner Inks Multi-Year Producing Deal With PalmStar Media (Exclusive)

Jeremy Renner has inked a deal with PalmStar Media, the busy indie film finance and production company behind the upcoming Will Smith starrer Collateral Beauty as well as American Ultra and Pawn Sacrifice.

As part of the multi-year deal, PalmStar will provide producing services and overhead, development and production financing for Renner and Don Handfield’s production company The Combine. The two companies aim to jointly produce two to three films per year.

Backed by deep-pocketed hedge fund Merced Capital, PalmStar is already in business with a number of high-profile indie production companies including Anthony Bregman’s Likely Story, Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road, Dylan Sellers’ Rivers Edge and Buddy Patrick’s Windy Hill Pictures.

“With the team at PalmStar, we have found partners who share our creative sensibilities and bring a high-level of expertise in financing, production and distribution that will enable us to take our company to the next level of growth and success,” Renner and Handfield said in a statement.

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Added PalmStar CEO Kevin Frakes: “PalmStar is dedicated to providing the resources for the world’s top producers to make films that reflect the highest artistic and commercial standards in the global marketplace. Teaming up with the talented Combine team led by Jeremy and Don further cements PalmStar’s status as an independent production company for the highest quality creative partners.”

CAA negotiated the deal on behalf of The Combine, and PalmStar partner Ankur Rungta represented his company.

Since its launch in 2011, The Combine has been active in both film and TV with a slate of projects, a combination of Renner star vehicles and ones in which the The Avengers actor does not appear. The Combine produced the true-life dramatic thriller Kill the Messenger, starring Renner and directed by Michael Cuesta from a screenplay by Peter Landesman as well as The Throwaways, a feature-length action comedy that premiered on Crackle starring Sam Worthington, Kevin Dillon and James Caan. The company recently wrapped production on the Michael Keaton starrer The Founder, directed by John Lee Hancock. On the TV front, The Combine recently sold the series Playing With Fire to HBO and Knightfall to The History Channel. The Combine previously had deals with Demarest Films and Kilburn Media as well as Indiean Paintbrush.

Likewise, Los Angeles-based PalmStar has made a splash on the indie scene since it was founded in 2010 and quickly became a film investment advisor to $2 billion hedge fund Merced Capital. The company has both development and production capabilities, along with the flexibility to provide bridge loans, senior and mezzanine debt, development and production equity and distribution financing. PalmStar has financed and produced such films as The Weinstein Company’s upcoming John Carney-helmed Sing Street as well as Collateral Beauty, which will begin production in the fall. The company is also behind the Kevin James vehicle The True Memoirs of an International Assassin.