“Pirates,” filmed on location throughout California and Florida, is a swashbuckling sex tale that combines deadly swordplay against digitally mastered skeleton warriors, cannons firing off the bows of realistic wooden warships and intense offshore battle scenes.
The film’s cast credits read like a veritable Who’s Who in adult film: Jesse Jane, Carmen Luvana, Janine, Teagan Presley, Devon, Austyn Moore, Jenaveve Jolie, Tommy Gunn, Evan Stone and Steve St. Croix. Produced by Digital Playground, “Pirates” is a film some people think might change the whole face of adult entertainment. It’s also a film that hundreds of people showed up to see, even though they were told the sex scenes had been temporarily deleted.
“We have had an amazing turnout for this film,” director Joone told XBiz. “The response has just been incredible. You know you’ve done something right when the heads of other leading adult film companies come up to you and tell you what an amazing job you’ve done.”
The big-budget production, co-produced by Adam & Eve, was shot and mastered on high definition and includes more than 300 special effects shots and 10 sex scenes. The total package amounts to nearly three hours of entertainment, not to mention a host of additional special features on a three-disc set.
“I don’t consider us a porn company,” explained Joone. “We are an entertainment company. If you delete these sex scenes you still have a really good story. With this film I want to really bridge the gap between mainstream and adult film.”
Joone, who describes plot as the “foreplay” in a film, got the idea for “Pirates” during the filming of “Island Fever III.” Originally included in the special features section of Fever, the first incantation of “Pirates” was little more than short film shot purely for fun, but quickly evolved into a high-tech adventure that would use the same techniques as “Star Wars” to create its battle scenes.
“We’ve actually had people in the industry thank us for raising the bar in adult film,” producer Samantha Lewis told XBiz. “This film really opens the doors for the next level of production.”
Fundamental to that next level, Lewis said, is the kind of attention to film making commonplace in Hollywood’s mainstream market, but typically avoided in the adult sector.
“We had 100 extras on this film,” she said as an example. “Many of them were real pirates. I mean, these were people who actually live every day as pirates, costumes and all. We also used a lot of mainstream talent and production staff. We took this film very seriously.”
The seriousness of the “Pirates” production was not lost on the stars of the show.
“[Star] Tommy Gunn told me that if he was only remembered for one film, this would be it,” said Lewis.
Superstar Jesse Jane agreed.
“Filming ‘Pirates’ was the most outrageous and intense experience I’ve ever had,” she said.
