CHATSWORTH, Calif. - Acclaimed photographer and director Carlos Batts is putting the final editorial touches on his X-rated feature, Young Hollywood, due out this fall from Bad Seed.
"Young Hollywood is kind of like my documentation of the real life of Hollywood models, actors, musicians and performers," Batts told AVN. "I wasn't trying to recreate anybody's life, or tell a full story. I wanted to say what really happens in our life: we work during the day, at night we go to clubs, and that's our life. So it's kind of more like a reality, 'Sex and the City'-meets-'Entourage' spin on porn and sex and indie film.”
Inspired by Batts’ 2003 photo book “Crazy Sexy Hollywood,” Young Hollywood stars Kimberly Kane and Ashley Blue as BFF socialites on the Hollywood scene. "It's about these young starlets — or whores, or whatever you want to call them — running around Hollywood, fucking photographers and getting stalked by paparazzi and stuff like that," said Kane. "It's really stylish and interesting and cool. Carlos rules; he's a great photographer and artist, and I'm super-proud to work with him."
Bad Seed plans to release two different cuts of Young Hollywood. While the movie is "definitely hardcore," Batts emphasized that his work is "not just about the sex; it's taking a whole new, fresh approach to the whole thing."
In addition to XXX performances from Alex Gonz, Steven St. Croix, Adrianna Nicole, Jerry, Dane Cross and Lindsey Meadows, Young Hollywood features a colorful assortment of cameos by performance artists, musicians, DJs, actors, artists, models and burlesque dancers.
"I
have some really cool cameos: Glenn Danzig, Kime Buzzelli, COOP,
Axis, and other artists that are living in Hollywood and really pushing forward," the director said. "My soundtrack
can rival a motion picture soundtrack. I think every band and every musician in
my project will probably be really serious in about a year and a half. I have
some really cool music that was made for me — Dat Boi, Dirt & Bank, I got
hip-hop, I got dubstep, I got cool electronic, I got metal, I got dark rock, I
got aggressive prog — I got some really cool stuff. Because I wanted the music
to be as strong as the visuals."
Young Hollywood is Batts' second movie slated for release through Bad Seed. His first, Voluptuous Life, is due out in October. "Voluptuous Life is an artistic, erotic music video film," said Batts. "It has a hardcore scene with April Flores and Kimberly Kane, but the other 50
minutes [are not hardcore]. We traveled for a year from San
Francisco to New York to Las Vegas, various
places, documenting real situations, so you're kind of getting the futuristic
version of reality-eroticism. It's not reality porn — MySpace has given the
whole world an opportunity to express themselves; if you look at any kind of
new place that holds visual images, it's all very erotic-driven."
Batts praised Adam & Eve/Bad Seed exec Peter Reynolds for giving him the creative freedom to pursue his vision.
"I approached Young Hollywood the same way I approach my music videos and my fashion shoots," Batts said. "I wouldn't say I tried to reinvent the wheel; I just put some rims on it and shined it up and did a whole new thing. I'm not trying to intellectualize it or say anything except I had fun doing it. I think it's a good opportunity to bring this genre into the future. So I feel really good about it. I've worked really hard on this and Voluptuous Life, and going from Voluptuous Life to Young Hollywood, it's really cool. I think everybody was really into it, and I would say that all of my hardcore scenes are on par, and I also think that creatively I'm on par, and I just wanted to make it be the west coast version of Short Bus. I was honestly more inspired by John Waters and Fellini and Larry Clark ... I used the porn performers and porn stars, but I also think that I tried to at least show something interesting outside of just the sex part. That's what I really wanted to do."
For more information on Carlos Batts, visit him online at cbattsflyvideo.com.
