LOS ANGELES — Director JacktheZipper will shoot a remake of “Mad Max” for Pleasure Dynasty and Exile Distribution that will star Xander Corvus as the title character.
The film, which will begin production in late 2011, will include notable moments from all three movies in the popular mainstream franchise that started in 1979 and helped make Mel Gibson a star.
“We are going to be faithful to the franchise,” Zipper told XBIZ. “Everybody loves ‘Mad Max’ so much that we’ve got some really interesting people from outside the adult industry that are going to be part of the project. We will have all the stunts and all of the car action that you’ve come to expect from ‘Mad Max’ movies.”
The futuristic series tell the story of a breakdown of society with murder and vengeance as running themes.
Zipper explained that he isn’t calling “Mad Maxxx,” or his other new project, “True Grit XXX,” a parody.
“I personally am turned off on the idea of parodies. I decided to do ‘True Grit’ and ‘Mad Maxxx’ because I had the team that could do justice to the material. I’m personally calling them hardcore remakes,” Zipper said.
The original film spawned the sequels “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” in 1981 and “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” in 1985. A fourth film, tentatively titled “Mad Max 4: Fury Road,” is in pre-production.
“There’s going to be some surprises,” Zipper continued. “We are doing the best of the first movie, ‘Road Warrior’ and ‘Thunderdome,’ and we even have some inside information about the reboot of the franchise. So there will be a lot of surprises in store for this one.”
In terms of the sex, Zipper revealed that "Mad Maxxx" will be "an all-out orgy movie, because how could you do ‘Mad Max’ without doing an orgy movie?"
"I think this is an opportunity to do a really hardcore gangbang movie. It fits the material,” he said.
Zipper recently began collaborating Exile Distribution’s Howard Levine after a chance meeting at Ralph’s supermarket.
“It was a good timing,” the director said.
“I was wondering where to take it next and I’d avoided parodies completely because I didn’t want to do an injustice to some of the movies that I love, but Howard kind of challenged me. And I thought about it for a while, that I might be able to do something with a well-known franchise, maybe bend the genre a bit. So when it became a challenge artistically, I decided to throw my hat into the ring.”
Zipper meanwhile will begin shooting “True Grit XXX” in early October starring Mark Davis as the Rooster Cogburn character and newcomer Alyssa Branch as Mattie Ross.
“I’m in pre-production right now. Expect it to look like 1876 from front to back,” Zipper said. “It’s basically a remake of the original Charles Portis novel that the [2010] film adaption was based on.”
Zipper is adapting the screenplay for adult.
“It should hold up as a narrative,” he said. “Everybody is putting 1,000 percent in. We’re spending a lot of time in pre-production.”
Locations will include an authentic Civil War cabin and some old Western town sets from classic Hollywood, Zipper said.
“We’re going to be out in the open Plains to capture all the grandeur. We’re going to be on horseback. We’re going to have authentic weapons from the 1800s. We have re-enactor clubs joining in. We’re going to have as much detail as we can possibly accomplish.”
In addition to Davis and Branch, the “True Grit XXX” cast also includes Michael Vegas as LaBoeuf and Xander Corvus as Tom Chaney.
“Mark Davis can’t wait to shock everybody,” Zipper said, adding that Davis is even growing a "big, old, silver beard for me." “Alyssa Branch grew up on horses. She’s a team player — smart as a whip. That was the pivotal casting decision, to make sure Mattie had all the qualities the story calls for. Alyssa gives me confidence."
Zipper said that he’s been looking for a guy like Corvus for a couple of years.
“He’s an actor who’s operating on a pretty high level for adult,” Zipper reasoned. “I think he brings that iconoclastic sort of energy that I’ve been looking for.
"I’ve been looking for a young leading man. And he’s got enough depth and he’s someone who cares enough about acting. Xander wants to do great work. He definitely thinks the same way as I do. Just because we’re doing adult doesn’t mean we can’t be filmmakers. It doesn’t mean we can’t exceed expectations.”
