"I always thought that Bewitched was a sweet and innocent series, which I guess it really still is, but after watching and studying the entire collection of episodes, I was a bit shocked at how risqué many of the episodes actually were, with a lot of sexual innuendo," he told XBIZ.
Mullen is well into production on his latest mainstream spoof, X-Play's "Not Bewitched XXX" He's already poked fun at "The Brady Bunch" and Britney Spears, and in the case of the former, Mullen managed to garner mainstream coverage on the gossip program "The Insider," as well as on the influential Hollywood blog Defamer.
Mullen's projects practically beg for litigation, and even though his company hasn't been sued for anything yet, his movies continue to push buttons.
In the case of "Not Bewitched XXX," there's the clear similarity of the movie's similarity to the classic TV series, but Mullen said he doesn't think he'll ever wind up in court because of his movies.
"My response is we don't believe we will be a target because we are working well within the law that protects copyrighted works," he said. "We have researched this quite well, and we also are big fans of the original projects and always take the high road and never make a mockery of the show or create buffoonish characters. We respect that which we create parody of."
But the plot also has the potential to raise eyebrows. Domestic witch Samantha (Jenna Haze) accidentally casts a spell that transforms their child, Tabitha (former Digital Playground contract star Teagan Presley), into an 18-year-old sexpot. Shenanigans ensue when her first birthday rolls around.
More mayhem breaks out when Tabitha starts using her magic to transform her dolls into life-size men to experiment with sexually. There's also an eight-girl orgy.
How could such a seemingly vanilla series have sparked such a naughty storyline? Besides the aforementioned risqué subtext, Mullen cited a memorably sexy episode on the original series.
"One episode in particular had this hot model that moved in next door with her sister, and Darren (Mike Horner) is in his robe picking up the morning paper watching her as she seductively bends over to get her mail," Mullen said. "The camera is shooting a perfect shot of her ass and then showing his yearning to talk to her. Samantha gets jealous of him spending time with the young model."
Mullen said he planning to execute the same media blitz that characterized "Not The Bradys XXX," including a VOD campaign to complement the DVD release.
But unlike "Not the Bradys XXX," "Not Bewitched XXX" won’t be able to benefit from the reactions of the real “Bewitched” cast members because, sadly, most have died. Mullen praised the original series' creative team.
"I don’t think we can ever say that our acting is better than a classic television show, as they were simply effortless and totally believable in their characters," he said. "We do have a number of magical acting performances that really help to elevate our movie into what I hope will be a total entertainment package."
"Not Bewitched XXX" stars Jenna Haze, Teagan Presley, Eva Angelina, Sunny Lane, Aurora Snow, Sasha Grey, Nina Hartley and Ron Jeremy, among others. It's set for an August release.
