Brad Armstrong's 'Starmaker' Heads to Retailers

LOS ANGELES—Acclaimed director Brad Armstrong's Starmaker, the follow-up to his 2015 AVN Award clinching Aftermath, is now shipping to retailers from Wicked Pictures, and will be available for purchase September 23. Headlined by Wicked contract stars Jessica Drake and Asa Akira, Starmaker tells the story of Mia (Akira), a struggling actress who meets Jeremy (2015 AVN Awards co-host Tommy Pistol), an aspiring screenwriter. Together, the two hatch a plan to blackmail famous movie producer Martin Anderson (Armstrong) by having Mia seduce him and secretly capture the illicit encounter on video. Martin relinquishes to their demands, but his angry wife Elise (Drake) enlists a hird thug (Kurt Lockwood) to squash the scheme. "Starmaker is by far one of the biggest and best acted films I've ever made," Armstrong said. "The entire cast did an incredible job, and I expect to see them all nominated for their performances in the upcoming awards season. With a mainstream-length script and eight sex scenes, Starmaker is this year's epic. It's three and a half hours of pure adult entertainment." According to three-time AVN Best Actress Drake, the role of Elise presented one of the biggest challenges of her career. "When I first read the part of Elise, I loved it and hated it all at the same time," she explained. "It is by far one of the juiciest roles I've played in my entire career, and it aligned me with some of the best players in porn ... Tommy Pistol, Kurt Lockwood, Brad Armstrong, and best of all, it led to more sex with Asa Akira! It's dark and gritty. It is not a love story. It's full of action, passion, desperation and fucking. With this script, sex, acting and art direction, the real 'star maker' here is Brad Armstrong. I'm honored to have been a part of the project, and I'm grateful to Wicked Pictures for continuing to produce quality feature movies that fans want to watch." Echoed Akira, "Brad Armstrong is a director I've looked up to since before I was in the business, so it's always such an honor when he casts me in something. It was very humbling to be in a movie alonside such great actors. I was definitely inspired to bring my A-game. Brad, as usual, wrote a really exciting script and brought the best out of me—every time he puts me in one of his big movies, I'm both flattered and intimidated, which is a very fun and encouraging combination. Watching Jessica play an evil bitch was pretty awesome, and a treat I don't think many people have had the pleasure of experiencing. Who knew she'd be so good at being the polar opposite of her real-life self? And Kurt and Tommy, both guys who are known to be some of the best actors in the business, did not disappoint. It's rare that guys can both act AND fuck my brains out, and they most certainly can. And did!" The movie, releasing in a two-disc set, also stars Kaylani Lei, Amia Miley, Courtney Taylor, Jeanie Marie Sullivan and Kalina Ryu. To view the SFW trailer, click here.