A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the True Grit porn project which was being helmed by Jack The Zipper for Pleasure Dynasty and investors SeeCurb Productions.

From what I’ve been told since then the Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan, who shot the re-make for the theaters with Jeff Bridges were ready to hit someone with a lawsuit.

I had this to write: “Pleasure Dynasty, was looking for investors with true grit to put the money up to make it. Pleasure Dynasty, run by Carlos Cavero, is, to put things in perspective, the same company behind General Stone’s [Rob Black] “Taxi Driver XXX” starring Tommy Pistol, as well as Training Day.

”Pleasure Dynasty apparently found said investors for True Grit in SeeCurb Productions.

”Under the agreement, SeeCurb Productions was to release 3 high-end features in collaboration with Pleasure Dynasty. The studio’s first scheduled movie was True Grit XXX to be released under the company’s parody platform.

”Directed by Jack the Zipper, the movie was to wrap principle photography last November. There were some behind the scenes features from mainstream websites, but you don’t hear much about the movie, now, and there might be a reason.

”Hailed by AVN as ‘The Stanley Kubrick of porn,’ JackTheZipper was telling the story about how a chance meeting with Howard Levine of Exile Distribution, which distributes for Pleasure Dynasty, at a Ralph’s brought the deal together.

”Zipper was to begin shooting “True Grit XXX” early last October starring Mark Davis as the Rooster Cogburn character and newcomer Alyssa Branch as Mattie Ross.

“’Expect it to look like 1876 from front to back,’” Zipper told www.XBiz.com.

“’It’s basically a remake of the original Charles Portis novel that the [2010] film adaption was based on.”

”Zipper was adapting the screenplay for adult.”

[From what I had heard it was too much like the Coen Brothers script to be comfortable. Then, again, the Coen Bros. script was too much like the John Wayne film to be absolutely original.]

“According to Zipper, locations would include an authentic Civil War cabin and some old Western town sets from classic Hollywood.

“’We’re going to be out in the open Plains to capture all the grandeur,’” Zipper touted.

“’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 was to include Michael Vegas as LaBoeuf and Xander Corvus as Tom Chaney.

“Mark Davis can’t wait to shock everybody,” Zipper added, noting that Davis eas 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’d 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. I think he brings that iconoclastic sort of energy that I’ve been looking for.”

When you use the word iconoclastic in an adult press interview there’s every reason to expect incalculable success.”

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So what happened? Two things from what I’ve been told. The shoot went $25,000 over budget and was pulled.

Then there was a little matter of the production being busted for lack of a permit. Going $25 K over budget and not having a permit doesn’t add up but park rangers evidently didn’t take that into consideration when they found the Zipper crew in the National Forest shooting without one. Or so that’s the story going around the business.

Whatever happened to the movie, I know one thing. There’s no mention of the feature on the Exile Distribution website docket.

But a clue has surfaced. I’m told that Zipper is still holding the masters and refusing to turn them over because he was never paid in full. Which begs the question: who was actually handling the money? Normally in porn productions the director writes out the checks, but if Zipper’s claiming he didn’t get paid, who’s responsible? And who’s responsible for driving up costs a reported $25,000?

The production manager was supposed to have handled the permit but dropped the ball evidently. The permit was $5,000. And another situation that would have led to a major catastrophe was the fact that there was no horse wrangler on the set. And as of May 15th there were still a number of crew members who hadn’t been paid.