The line between the adult film industry and mainstream movies has begun to blur recently. Not because Hollywood movies have become more raunchy, but because porn purveyors have taken advantage of new advancements in digital technology to create better quality movies. In many cases, they've even been ahead of Hollywood in taking advantage of advances, in particular in pushing the envelope of home entertainment DVD and downloadable on demand formats.
With better quality movies have come mainstream opportunities. Adult moviemakers have in some cases stripped the hardest of their hardcore out of a handful of their pics and then released them as R-rated features direct to video in order to do more picking of Hollywood's pocket. Most recently this was done with the adult movie Pirates, a buxom tale of pantsless men and plastic surgery at sea.
Now one adult entertainment company is ready to take things a step further. The Hollywood Reporter says the world's largest, Private Media Group, is launching a division to produce what they call "sexy genre" films for mainstream movie screens. They've reportedly already got one such English language film in production.
The company's marketing director Gary Thoulouis says he sees an opportunity in the way ratings have been working. He feels you can get away with a lot before being slapped with the X-rating these days. Odd, I wonder if we've been watching the same movies? Actually, his statement is a little confusing, since America long ago phased out the X rating. Now we have NC-17, and anything deemed too graphic for NC-17 is usually just left unrated. Pornography for instance. So does he mean he's shooting for an NC-17, or does he plan on hitting Rated-R? Your guess is as good as mine.
Ultimately, what we're probably talking about here is the equivalent of Skinemax late-night softcore pornography pumped into theaters. Hard NC-17 films or movies that walk the line between NC-17 and R in order to squeeze in as much smut as possible. Private Media Group will likely have more success in Europe, where most countries restrict violence more heavily than they do the act of lovemaking. Insert your own joke here about how the acting can't possibly be any worse than it is in one of Hollywood's latest offerings. Here's a hint: I'd probably go with something involving Paul Walker.
