LOS ANGELES — AMKingdom held the premiere for its first scripted feature “Revenge of the Petites” Tuesday night at the Regent Theater in Westwood, Calif. The event was an intimate affair that reunited cast and crew and welcomed the industry to celebrate the release of producer Kim Nielsen’s love letter to the American coming-of-age comedy.
The evening’s festivities kicked off with a red carpet affair that saw the film’s stars smiling for cameras and waving to fans and curious onlookers, who rubbernecked best they could to catch a peek at Petite topliner Skin Diamond, tall drink-of-water Vanessa Cage, brunette stunner Dani Daniels, beautiful Celeste Star and fellow Petite cast members such as Katie St. Ives, Victoria Rae Black, Tia Cyrus and Sarah Shevon.
Male leads Seth Dickens, Kris Slater and Talon were also on hand, posing for pictures and engaging in small talk with fans off the red carpet. “I love ATK. They’re a great company,” Talon said. “I love working for them and this was such a great concept for a movie.”
“Revenge of the Petites,” a throwback to beloved ’80s and ’90s sex comedies such as “Revenge of the Nerds,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “American Pie,” is a project that has been near to Nielsen’s heart for some time, and one that quickly came to fruition once he and indie filmmaker Harry Sparks sat down to discuss the story.
“I had carried this vision around for a while,” Nielsen told XBIZ. “My fiancé, Sativa [Verte], who is in the movie, introduced me to Harry. She had worked with him in a horror film. When he moved out to California, I hired him as full-time editor, but bearing in mind that I would have him work on ‘Revenge of the Petites.’
“We pooled a lot of talent from mainstream to put this together,” Nielsen continued. “Everything is original — from the screenplay to the music; we even had a band create five ’80s type songs. We wanted to show that adult could put something together that’s a little higher-end and goes further than your run-of-mill stuff.”
Cage, a Texas-born, Florida native with blonde hair and long legs, said she believed the film would “put a smile on people’s faces” and that she was thrilled to have gotten the opportunity to play the Petites’ nemesis, a mean sorority girl driven by a need to humiliate those who don’t look like her.
“I play a total bitch,” she said. “It was a fun challenge. I actually got the part two days before we had to shoot, but I think I did pretty well. Harry is very cool. He’s not one of those directors that scream and shouts. He’s very chill and accommodating.”
Daniels, who co-stars as Cage’s sorority sister and BFF, echoed her co-star’s sentiment, noting that, “Harry’s a sweetheart; one of the easiest people to work with. He walks on set and just knows what he wants and knows how he’s going to do it.”
Sparks, whose previous works include the documentary short “Shenandoah,” about the effects of global warming on Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and the horror films “All Hallows’ Eve” and “Rotkäppchen: The Blood of Red Riding Hood,” arrived at the premiere to cheers and hugs from his entire cast.
When the Maryland-born director, producer, and writer took the stage at the Regent Theater to introduce his film, he appeared humbled and moved by the outpouring of affection and excitement. The applause, however, soon turned to hoots and howls when Sparks asked that people set their mobile phones to vibrate.
The good times continued as “Revenge of the Petites” began to play on the big screen, enthusiasm just a toast-toss away from resembling a midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Afterwards, Sparks, Nielsen, cast and crew were all beaming with pride as they prepared to visit the Barney’s Beanery located next door to the theater for the after-party, where Petite lead actress Marie McCray was spotted.
“I'm simply overwhelmed at the positive reaction,” Sparks said. “It's always exciting to view your film with an audience and the level of audience participation was great. They really helped make it a great and memorable evening!"
And, it won’t be the last.
Nielsen revealed to XBIZ that “Revenge of the Petites” is only the first in a series of big-budget features AMKingdom will release once a year. He said, “We want to do one big feature film a year with higher production values, an original screenplay and some kind of positive message for the audience.”
“Revenge of the Petites” arrives on DVD as a three-disc set on May 2 through Exile Distribution. Bonus features include extended sex scenes, cast interviews, photo galleries and a making-of documentary.
Several other porn personalities came out for the event, including Kirsten Price, who hosted XBIZ TV’s red carpet coverage, Chanel Preston, Melissa Jacobs, Elle Alexandra, Tessa Lane, Cindy Starfall, Will Ryder, "Starlet" screenwriter Chris Bergoch, Jenna Ross, Christie Stevens, James Bartholet, Tee Reel, Eric Swiss, Melissa Campos and numerous members of the Petites film crew and AMKingdom staff.
Photo by Rick Garcia/IndustrybyRick.
