CHATSWORTH, Calif.—New Sensations was the first to release a couples-oriented "Romance" line of movies, and that award-winning concept has spawned its share of imitators—so now the company is going one step further.
"What I want to do, and what I've wanted to do since the inception of my Romance line, is tackle some more deeply-rooted relationship issues," said New Sensations/Digital Sin owner Scott Taylor. "I consider the Romance line to be more of a honeymoon, and I consider my new series, which will be released through Digital Sin, which we'll be starting to shoot in February, more of an advanced version."
The as-yet-unnamed line will tackle the thorny question of what happens in a relationship once the bloom is off the rose, and the partners have to deal with sustaining the love they originally felt for each other.
"What we'll be dealing with is, now we're in the relationship; things get a little stale; what do we do to keep the excitement going?" Taylor explained. "I want to address some issues that maybe some couples go through, that they find themselves at odds with each other, or one feels the seven year itch coming on, or certain other things, but always drawing back to being together: How do you stay together? Not how do you cheat and how do you go get a girlfriend or whatever; more of dealing with the issues of a long-term relationship and what people do to keep it together and really have the best outcome of just staying together.
"It is a couples line," he continued, "but it's not going to be addressing any kind of instructional theme or any kind of 'I'm telling you what to do.' It's presented in a manner as any movie would be. It's about how they do it. It's going to be a little sexier. It's going to be a little more adventurous. We're going to deal with issues of bringing another person into the relationship; possibly some swinging. There's going to be some sensitive issues, some taboo issues that don't fit in the romance line, but they deal with really like what are some of the things that real couples do?"
It's a fact that many in the porn-viewing public watch adult movies together to help add spice to their relationship, and the new line seems to be targeting those viewers precisely.
"We're not trying to help people who are in the situation of, 'We only have sex but once every year'; we're trying to show how to bring the fire back into the relationship and what is that, and it could be in a number of ways," Taylor said. "It could be just, 'Let's go back to dating'; 'Let's have date night'; 'Let's try this'; 'Let's try that'; but I want to get into some of those issues, what a couple might face. It's an issue I've wanted to tackle for a long time."
To bring about this vision, Taylor will be using several of the performers who helped make his Romance series a success.
"There are certain people that I go to that I think are very good at expressing the emotional connection that couples have," he explained. "They have to be a good actress or actor, because if you're not convinced about the character or about the feelings of the character, the whole thing falls apart."
While much of the writing for the new series will be handled by veteran Romance writer Jacky St. James, who won AVN's 2012 award for Best Screenplay for Dear Abby, Taylor will be adding some unexpected innovations to the line as it prepares to take flight.
"I'm absolutely going to continue to use Eddie Powell in this series," Taylor assured, "and Jacky St. James, the writer of our more recent Romance movies, is going to be writing some as well. I think she's actually predisposed to be even better at this type of writing, something a little more sexy, so I'm unleashing her a little bit more. Jacky is also going to be transitioning into a director, so I've got her doing some things to prepare for that. She's got some fantastic ideas, because as a writer, you visualize what's going on; what is this person feeling; what do they look like when they're feeling that; how does it look? So she's going to be transitioning into a director."
But perhaps the big news is that Taylor has snagged one of adult's most famous—and most award-winning—directors to try his hand at this new genre: Paul Thomas, whose Pervert was nominated for several awards this year.
But Taylor is adamant that any production that doesn't meet his standards for the new line won't bear its imprint.
"Quite honestly, the way I work is, if it doesn't cut the mustard, if it isn't the right product that I envisioned, regardless of reading the script and believing that it's going to be a certain way, I won't release it under the series," he stated. "I had certain ones in the Romance series that didn't fit what I thought embodied the nature of what it was supposed to be, so I didn't release them. If it doesn't really capture what I'm trying to do, then it will be a release on its own. It'll be shot with quality, but it's got to be part of that direction, part of the idea that I have; it must fit that mold. You can't just make a movie where two people just say they like each other or love each other and it's a Romance movie. There's a definitive format to what we're trying to convey. People have other ideas and have done other romance movies throughout the industry and they have their vision; I have mine. I don't want to stray from mine. I think ours are very good and they're absolutely exactly what I'm looking to do."
The new series will begin shooting this month, and the first one is likely to hit store shelves in late March or April—possibly just in time to help long-time couples take a fresh look at their relationship and figure out how to renew the passion, one date night at a time.
Pictured: The New Sensations/Digital Sin/NS Novelties booth at the Adult Entertainment Expo.
