Brillstein Alum Jai Khanna Partners With Producer Marina Grasic To Launch Oakhurst Entertainment

EXCLUSIVE: Jai Khanna, former Brillstein Entertainment manager, has teamed with New York, I Love You producer Marina Grasic to form Oakhurst Entertainment, the new fund-based indie media company which will generate film and television properties.

Khanna spent two decades at Brillstein representing artists and packaging content across books, film, and TV. Grasic, who also served as an executive producer on the Oscar-winning film Crash, is former entertainment attorney and previously was COO of Sidney Kimmel Entertainment.

Oakhurst has set its inaugural projects with Hotel Tehran, written by Emmy winner Ron Hutchinson ( Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story, Traffic, Marco Polo), as well as Bot, a sci-fi thriller trilogy from screenwriter Tedi Sarafian (Tank Girl)

The former is inspired by real-life CIA undercover operative Bazzel Baz. His experiences in hostage rescues, as well as methods and techniques for use in clandestine activities, has earned him the prestigious Intelligence Commendation Medal. Since 1999, Bazzel has been a technical advisor/consultant to a number of TV shows like The Closer and The Blacklist.

The project is currently out to directors. Wendy Sweetmore of Dreamtime Films is producing the pic with Oakhurst.

Bot, which is also looking to attach a director, is set in the not-too-distant future where more than a hundred infants labeled “Star Children” are born with over-sized craniums and intellects far beyond our own. Demanding a New World Order under their jurisdiction, they have created robots far beyond anything we’ve ever seen before… Sinister, godlike machines that can download human consciousness and will be a dark step in evolution unless we can stop them.

Michele Berk of Lotus Pictures (Baywatch, Bandits) is also on board to produce.

In addition to these projects, Oakhurst is active in early-stage investments in technology companies and other start-ups, with an emphasis on talent-backed ventures. Nicholas Burnett, formerly of White & Case LLP and Arent Fox LLP, will oversee Business & Legal Affairs and Business Development for the company.