It’s tough making a porn parody these days that’ll stand out amongst the rabble, but Axel Braun’s Batman XXX: A Porn Parody (distributed by Vivid Entertainment) achieved a far loftier margin of prominence than that. It was an unqualified sensation, attracting scads of worldwide media attention and going on to be crowned by AVN as not only the year's Best Parody – Comedy, but its Best Renting & Selling Title, to boot.
To what does Braun attribute this overwhelming success? Beyond all else, he credits his own passion for the picture.
“Batman XXX is a project I have a strong emotional attachment to,” Braun said. “Putting it together was definitely a labor of love, and the fact that I wrote, produced, directed and financed the movie myself makes its success much sweeter.”
It was the amount of care he put into the movie's creation that caused it to resonate so powerfully with the public, Braun suggested.
“I think the fans responded so positively because my attention to details clearly showed that I am a fan as well, and they didn't feel cheated,” he said. “The ’60s Batman TV show has a strong fan base, and its tongue-in-cheek humor was ideal for a porn spoof. But you have to keep in mind that putting loved characters in sexual situations needs to be justified in the script—you need to try and play out the fans’ fantasies—and that’s why being a fan is so important for them to connect.”
Braun also gives Vivid its just due for the wizardly marketing efforts the company threw behind the movie.
“Vivid did a fantastic job marketing the movie, and the level of support they provided was instrumental in creating the perfect environment for me to make the best movie that I possibly could,” he affirmed. “The key was to go after a different demographic; we didn’t simply target the average porn consumer, but specifically the fan base of the source material.”
As to this year’s new division of the Best Parody category into Comedy and Drama, Braun said he felt the boom of porn parodies had made such a development “inevitable.” And even with the split, he conceded that his competition remained very stiff.
“I thought what New Sensations did with The Big Lebowski was outstanding,” he professed, “and even though the movie was in direct competition with Batman XXX, I would have loved to see it recognized for more than Tom Byron’s excellent acting."
All of the above aside, Braun had one other very important note of acknowledgment he wanted to make for what was easily the biggest night of his career—which also saw him inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame and named Director of the Year (Body of Work): “My father, Lasse Braun, is an AVN Hall-of-Famer too, and I’m incredibly happy and thankful that I was able to make him so proud of me.”
Pictured: Dale DaBone, Steve Hirsch, Axel Braun, Tori Black and Andy San Dimas on stage at the 2011 AVN Awards. Photo by Lee/EMMreport.com.
This article originally ran in the March 2011 print edition of AVN magazine. AVN.com features photos of the AVN Awards winners, the stage show and the red carpet.
