Avi Lerner, executive producer of the money-minting and seemingly endless “Expendables” and “Rambo” franchises, and actor-turned-movie-producer Heidi Jo Markel have hoisted their casually appointed Mediterranean villa in the leafy heart of L.A.’s storied Laurel Canyon on the market at almost $4 million, more than three times the $1.2 million tax records indicate Lerner paid about 14 years ago for the two parcels that comprise the slightly more than three-quarter acre spread.
An unusually and famously prolific film and television producer with literally hundreds of films under his professional belt, Lerner has more than a dozen projects in various stages of production through Millennium Media, which he co-founded in the early 1990s. In addition to “The Expendables 4” and its TV series offshoot, he’s got his hands in the next installment of the “Rambo” franchise as well as the “long-gestating” reprise of the 1985 Brigitte Nielsen-starring adaptation of the comic book “Red Sonja” that was derailed a few years ago when its then writer and director Bryan Singer was axed from the project after an investigative report was published in The Atlantic brought to light salacious and horrifying allegations of sexual misconduct. (The film is currently back on track and slated to be co-written by Tasha Huo and Joey Soloway, the latter of whom will also direct.”)
As for Markel, she was an actor before she became a movie producer with credits that include the 2013 film “Lovelace” along with the ongoing Gerard Butler-starring “Has Fallen” franchise, which is also executive produced by Lerner.
Built in 1923, set behind an imposing gate engulfed in trees and fronted by a huge gravel motor court, the pale green house is enhanced with darker green and buff-colored awnings over its windows and terraces. One of the home’s more unusual features are it two two identical carved wood front doors set on either side of a huge arched window and tiled water fountain.
Listings held by held by Sharona Alperin at Sotheby’s Int’l Realty indicate there are a total of five bedrooms and four full and two half bathrooms between the almost 3,800-square-foot main house and generously sized attached guest suite.
