LOS ANGELES — Evil Angel has announced the release of a two-part lesbian feature from founder and director John Stagliano, “Hard In Love,” which premiered May 8 at EvilAngel.com and May 18 on DVD and VOD.
Just three weeks later, on June 6, “Hard In Love 2” concludes the two-part, eight-hour epic. Each installment runs about four hours and includes an additional half-hour of behind-the-scenes footage — available in all formats — showing the writing process and on-set direction.
“Hard In Love” features Samantha Bentley and Misha Cross embodying love "at its most dark and psychotic." The two performers had extra insight into their characters because they wrote the script, resulting in action described as "hard, real, desperate and messy."
Stagliano explained the genesis of the project. “Somehow, I found myself escorting Ms. Bentley and Ms. Cross to a party at Insomnia in Berlin," he said. "I realized I was in the presence of two very talented women. We talked about love, and falling hard. I soon realized I was out of my league trying to create a story about female emotional drama. Samantha and Misha are much more intuitively equipped. We connected with regard to the type of sex I wanted to shoot and they loved to do. ‘Hard In Love’ was born.”
Justin Rich, domestic sales manager of Evil Angel, said, “John’s big, ambitious features — like ‘The Fashionistas’ and ‘Voracious’ — have always done well. And this new one has incredibly marketable talent. Misha is the 2015 XBIZ Foreign Female Performer of the Year. And Samantha does big-time, mainstream drama, appearing in multiple episodes of HBO’s ‘Game Of Thrones.’”
To promote “Hard In Love,” Bentley and Cross will be doing Periscope broadcasts May 13-15 from London. Then on May 18, Stagliano will do a Periscope broadcast linked with Bentley and Cross. Evil Angel can be followed on Periscope. Also on May 18, Bentley and Cross will take over Evil Angel’s Twitter.
Of Bentley and Cross, Stagliano remarked, “Samantha can go from thoughtful and intelligent, in our script discussions, to a demon-driven psycho, seamlessly, believably and intensely. This is the second time I have edited a movie she was in for me, where I find the material we have created to be too disturbingly real for me to watch, at first.”
The director considers some of the movie’s best acting to be in a scene where Bentley must watch provocative video of Cross. Stagliano observed, “Misha is a driven bitch who says to Samantha, ‘When you watch this, I hope your head explodes.’ Misha’s body looks like a teen, but her face and emotion are sophisticated and depraved.”
A major presence in “Hard In Love” is Angel Long, who like Bentley, is British. “Samantha recommended I hire Angel to dominate her,” recalled Stagliano. “I was a fan of Angel’s when she did scenes in the early 2000s. Today she is a dom, and is obsessive about working out. Her flaming red hair and powerful, sexy, English-accented voice really work for me. The Brits always sound smarter and more depraved than Americans. Angel was the catalyst that ignited this jealousy-driven story of revenge and psycho depravity. She became like Rocco in a boy-girl movie to me. She drives scenes.”
Stagliano shot “Hard In Love” in some of his favorite locations, with the help of industry friends. “Rocco offered me the use of his studio in Budapest," he said. "Things always go better for me when Rocco is around. And we shot in Berlin! Dominique, the owner of Insomnia, offered to let me shoot at her club. Insomnia is where I shot my ‘Fashionistas Safado’ movies, and is my favorite club in the world.”
The first installment of “Hard In Love” can be previewed now in a trailer here and the trailer for the closing chapter will be available tomorrow on Tuesday, May 10, also at EvilAngelVideo.com.
“I had the girls’ demented imagination to save me,” Stagliano stated. “As with so much of this movie, the ending was a surprise to me and my narrow male thinking.”
For sales inquiries, contact Justin Rich at JRich@EvilAngel.com or (800) 442-6435, ext. 115. For foreign sales inquiries, contact Alexandra (Alex) Kelley at Alex@EvilAngel.com or (818) 787-1414, ext. 106. For more information about Evil Angel Wholesale, visit their B2B site at EvilDistributor.com.
