Cameron Grant’s Boardwalk Productions is getting a new distributor — a whole new company, in fact, created just for him.
Industry veteran Mickey Blank and his son Alex have set up Offbeat Distribution just to sell Boardwalk titles, specifically Rude Girls, Grant’s line of higher-end, wall-to-wall sex vids. They were previously distributed by New Sensations — seven volumes on VHS but only the first three on DVD.
The elder Blank, owner of Shooting Star and Sticky Video, told AVN.com, candidly, “If I distribute Cameron’s stuff through Shooting Star, it’s ridiculous. Shooting Star is low-end type stuff and Cameron is high-end type stuff.
“So I formed a distribution company with Alex — and he’ll be doing most of the sales, strictly for Cameron Grant—to distribute his product.”
In addition to the series Offbeat will at some point release a re-mastered DVD of Grant’s big-budget Shameless Desire, released in 1997 with an all-star cast headed by Jill Kelly and Raylene.
“We plan to start shipping about a month from now,” Alex Blank told AVN.com. Rude Girls 4, on DVD, will be first Offbeat release.
Grant directed Rude Girls as “Terence Chase,” while using his own name as executive producer. He told AVN.com, “I didn’t want people to get them and think it would be like the big-budget stuff I’m sort of known for. But it’s all me.”
The movies Grant made for Ultimate Pictures in the mid-90s were considered in the same lofty league as those of Andrew Blake and Michael Ninn. They include The Dinner Party, Elements of Desire, Fantasy Chamber, now distributed by Adam & Eve.
“All that stuff was great fun, very rewarding artistically,” he said. “I had bigger budgets, a real film crew, two-camera shoots, shot on film. I’d love to get back to that stuff, but it’s difficult to raise the budgets these days. The market’s so splintered.”
Still, he said he plans to shoot Vol. 8 of Rude Girls as soon as Boardwalk’s DVD releases are up to speed. “And I definitely want to do another ‘Cameron Grant.’ I’m not sure if I want to shoot on film or in High-Def, but I need to do something that is a little more challenging.”
Both Blanks say they’re hoping he does return to big-budget movies — and Offbeat will be distributing all his future projects.
For Offbeat Distribution sales, call Alex Blank at 949.369.0329.
