The following interview is from IESB.net

Porn Valley- Lately, it seems the porn industry has been crossing over to mainstream like never before. How you may ask? Most people, whether they admit it or not, watch porn in some way, shape or form. From people visiting punk porn websites or catching adult films late at night on Showtime, it’s all porn.

Let’s not forget that names such as Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson have pop culture status that rivals even Britney Spears and most stars that appear on MTV.

Hollywood has also done their part to promote porn with films like Boogie Nights and most recently The Moguls and it doesn’t stop there. The cable networks have their fill on a daily basis with reality series such as The Cathouse, Family Business and Girls Next Door, porn is here to stay.

A few days ago I received a press release from Vivid in which they announced their partnership with award winning adult movie director JacktheZipper.

Who is JacktheZipper? JTZ is new to the game but quickly has found himself a following with movie titles such as Stuntgirl Volumes One and Two, Squealer, Naked and Famous and his latest film Blacklight Beauty.

So why would the IESB readers care? Interestingly, JTZ is getting ready to shoot a new adult film that will be shot entirely on green screen and have the Award Winning CGI talents of Kevin Kutchavar and Himani Productions working on the film.

Himani Productions have worked on blockbuster films and TV Shows such as Hellboy, X-2, Scooby Doo, Xena, Hercules, Alias, Lost and is currently working on Clive Owens latest film Shoot Em’ Up.

Slaves of Venus, as it is currently called, will feature distant planets, space ships, wormholes and the latest special effects to keep any sci-fi geek happy plus of course all the hot babes that you can shake your light saber at.

So as you can tell this upcoming project is not your typical gonzo movie shot at your local hotel six.

The IESB has had the opportunity to ask JTZ a few questions about Slaves of Venus and his recent partnership with Vivid.

IESB: Why did you decide on Vivid?

JTZ: Vivid approached me last year but the timing wasn’t right…this year the timing was better…and the movies I wanna make now are a very good fit…plus they’re very decent people.

IESB: You have a very interesting way of shooting your movies, from different camera angles to very unique styles of lighting, what has been your inspiration?

JTZ: Thanks…I’m drawing heavily from experiences, memory, and a lack of technical training.

IESB: Why be different?

JTZ: I guess so we can all talk about it but really I just started out with no rules. My first movies were indie films that I produced without a plan for selling them which ended up being viewed as a style once they slithered into the marketplace.

IESB: What got you in adult movie making and was it a hard journey?

JTZ: It was a wonderful journey, I was a musician and an artist my whole life, I started tattooing professionally several years ago. My shop was a hotbed of other artists, bands, gangsters, cops, plumbers, housewives and strippers all sitting around for hours watching David Lynch, Coen Brothers, Grindhouse, Hong Kong cinema, and Midget Porn. I’ve heard a thousand different opinions on art, movies, culture, and sex, I’ve tattooed hundreds of teenage girls and heard every bizarre story imaginable. I think my first movie STUNTGIRL was a reaction to all that.

IESB: After winning your AVN awards, has your take on adult movie making changed?

JTZ: Yes, before I left New York for Los Angeles I imagined porn was like this new punk rock frontier or something, a wide open opportunity to express something inside a very wealthy and tolerant industry. Now I think its more like boxing, you hype a project to the hilt no matter how good or bad it is for maximum bang at the box office, then on to the next event.

IESB: You do your own shooting, editing, directing, what else do you do on your productions and why?

JTZ: A legendary adult performer named John Dough died yesterday, killed himself, when I first met him a friend of mine who was doing a documentary about the XXX business he was talking to John and he said it was like building a sandcastle, you create this fantasy of a woman, you attempt to capture it and at the end of the shoot it all melts away till next time. I kind of agree with him.

IESB: You have a science fiction/fantasy adult film on its way, what can you tell us about the movie, the story, the action, the inspiration, the cast?

JTZ: About 2 years ago I started thinking about a greenscreen/cgi movie in the spirit of Sky Captain and Sin City and how much fun it would be to bring that to adult [world]. I’m a huge fan of Barbarella and Forbidden Zone and lots of other wonderfully strange films. I’m addicted to cosmology and astrophysics and I kept thinking how there hasn’t been a major adult motion picture since CALIGULA but now the technology is in sync with the kind of budgets I have to play with, so it grew and grew from there.

IESB: You have some real CGI wizards on this project, can you tell me a little about the team?

JTZ: I’m working with Kevin Kutchavar and Himani Productions, they are master craftsmen and their list of credits include Return of the Jedi, Hellboy, Wild at Heart, the Hercules and Xena television series, the as yet unreleased SHOOT’EM UP film [with Clive Owen] and they just won an Emmy this year for their work on Lost.

IESB: How did Kevin and Himani get involved?

JTZ: Kevin and I met last year through a mutual friend and when he saw my stuff I think he recognized something he liked from a filmcraft standpoint despite the scale and the subject matter. We started brainstorming my ideas and sparks flew as they say, having him in my corner made it seem very doable so I pushed and pushed and knocked on every studios door till we found a home for it at Vivid. The working title is Slaves of Venus and its a fable about a sexy female astronaut vs. an evil, wicked and beautifully seductive queen that takes place in our solar system many millennia from now.

IESB: How much of it will be green screen?

JTZ: 100%

IESB: Do you know if other adult films have ever used Emmy award winning artists for special effects?

JTZ: I’ve heard rumors that A LOT of mainstream heavyweights got started in adult [film], you could write a book just on that subject.

IESB: What other adult projects are you working on?

JTZ: I’m doing a movie called King Cobra right now which we’re shooting in the California desert, its kind of a modern day Faster Pussycat I guess, bad girls, choppers, mud wrestling, a movie for the boys.

IESB: Looking back at your work, it doesn’t take much to see that you can easily crossover to mainstream movie making, when are we going to see you tackle a demented horror film or do you prefer another genre?

JTZ: I’m a fan of true crime, horror, fantasy, and black comedy so who knows maybe someone daring is listening.

So there you have it, from Emmy Award winning special effects wizards working on adult movies and porn directors eyeing mainstream movies, adult entertainment is here to stay.

Stay tuned to the IESB as we continue to bring you the latest happenings from Hollywood.