Today, writer/director Kay Brandt embarks on her first adult production after taking a hiatus to work on writing projects. The creator of two ambitious series—Digital Playground’s Cherry and New Sensations’ Against Her Will—is back with a new challenge at Adam & Eve Pictures.
Safe Landings is the first of a new erotic-books-to-film line from Adam & Eve; it’s based on Brandt’s erotic romance novel that explores the psychological and deep sexual connection between two survivors of a tragedy, a married flight attendant and the young, engaged woman she saved from an airplane crash. Their mutual emotional support for each other leads to psychological dependency—which spirals into an inescapable romantic and sexual relationship. Their affair escalates, putting them both in a dangerous situation that could change their lives, leading them to decide whether to be together or part company, never to meet again.
Brandt originally wrote the Safe Landings script for mainstream television, “and there was so much more story that I veered off into writing a manuscript, and I turned it into a book,” Brandt told AVN. “I started writing it a year ago and put it aside because I wanted to turn my Cherry movies into books. The creative voice was saying, ‘Write the Cherry books.’ I wrote and released Cherry 1, then Cherry 2 and Cherry 3, which came out in April of this year. Cherry 4 will come out in December. There will be six all together in the series. In the literary world, if you’re going to bundle a series of novellas, it’s usually six books.”
Her first step was casting, which she kicked off with an open call at the Free Speech Coalition offices last month. The process yielded some good auditions, Brandt told AVN. "I've had my eye on Chanel Preston for a long time and I'm pleased with the reading that she gave. Penny Pax was a surprise. I knew she was a good actress, but I was surprised at the authenticity she brought to it. Jade Nile gave a shockingly good audition. Carter Cruise was great too. As far as the men, Xander [Corvus] is so very talented. He has that intangible thing that you can't turn your back on, and a tremendous amount of charm. Ryan McLane was very good, he gave a every solid reading."
Brandt ended up selecting both Corvus and McLane, as well as Brenda James, Marcus London, Alison Rey and August Ames. The latter will be doing her first B/B/G for the project.
The production of Safe Landings marks Brandt’s return to the adult industry. “I’m back, and it’s very exciting,” Brandt said. She had been on staff for two years as a writer and director at Digital Playground, making the Cherry series and the Jewel Box line, “and I wrote a ton of movies for Robby D.” as well as doing PR, writing box cover copy, and rewriting synopses of library titles. “I was pretty busy while I was there.”
After leaving Digital Playground, she stayed in adult for 18 months, making movies for Filly Films and New Sensations before leaving adult because her job offers were “for being a sex director as opposed to a story director.” She moved on to writing e-books, building on the Cherry films. “It was the only way for me to transition and get back to doing that. I had a lot of fans who wanted to know more about the story behind the Cherry movies, because there was so much more there, and that’s what I did, gave the whole story. It was very healing for me to be able to do that. I could take back my power and bring it all back with the magic of storytelling. Many fans were very loyal and many of them followed me from movies to books. They supported me on social media, which was very touching. I couldn’t have done it without their support. A couple of my books became bestsellers.”
The novel version of Safe Landings will be published in December, first as an e-book and later in paperback and audiobook. The movie is scheduled for a late September release.
Pictured above: Kay Brandt at left; Ryan McLane, August Ames and Xander Corvus at the casting session
