PUSSY CRIMES TO BE DISTRIBUTED BY ARROW PRODUCTIONS

Confirming the speculation, Arrow's Tom Zupko reports: "After entertaining offers from a number of companies, Apocalypse Productions has decided that Arrow Productions will distribute its second release, Pussy Crimes.

"After going over my options, I made the decision I felt would be in the best interest of this company at this particular time."

Pussy Crimes, starring Bailey Montaine, Brian Surewood, Casey Minx, Caroline Pierce, Rikki Anderson, Phylissha Ann, and Elle Devine is, according to Apocalypse press releases is 'a whacked-out, jizz-filled tribute to law-enforcement where absolutely nothing is held sacred.'

"Although heavily promoted by Evil Angel and originally intended for a Sept. 29th release, it was rejected last minute by John Stagliano for a myriad of reasons which were mentioned by E.A.'s head of publicity Jeff Marton on Gene Ross's website (09/21/99).

" 'It's kind of a strange situation,' Zupko says, 'which once again confirms to me that, in the end, you have to put yourself in a position where you have total control over your vision, answering to no one but yourself. Remove yourself from the inane politics and arrogance of the game, just do the best you can and let the fucking marketplace dictate what is good and bad.'

"Apocalypse's first release, Anal Ball, sold nearly 5,000 units, went to number one on AVN's weekly sales chart, and was well-received by critics and fans alike. Released by The Evil Empire in late July, it stars Montana Gunn in arguably her hottest and strongest scene ever. In it, the blonde siren does an amazing array of carnal stunts with bananas, ice cubes, and Apocalypse's co-founder Brian Surewood's cock. Stagliano called Montana's performance "one of the most erotic scenes lensed in years.

" Truth be told,' Zupko elaborates, 'is that I got fucked every motherfucking which way on this project (Pussy Crimes). I got fucked by my original editor and had to practically re-edit the whole fucking thing in a short period of time. I got fucked by the owner of the editing bay--who I thought was a friend of mine--when more than four hours of digital tape containing some of the hottest and most controversial footage of the entire video mysteriously fucking disappeared and no one seems to know anything about it or want to take responsibility for it.

" 'All of this forced me to re-cut and even replace scenes. And, although he is entitled to his opinion, I also feel to a certain degree I was treated somewhat unfairly by John, although I certainly have no hard or ill feelings toward him. He's done a lot for us and hopefully, if it's mutually beneficial, we'll resume our business relationship in the near future.'

"Brian Surewood, the controversial XXX company's vice-president, cannot understand all the fuss about the flick, as he thinks that--with the exception of the Montana Gunn scene in Anal Ball, which he considers classic--Pussy Crimes is overall even better than Anal Ball.

" 'I've showed screeners of it to more than a dozen people, reviewers and such, and they all loved it.They simply cannot understand John's problems with it. Yeah, it's on the edge, whacked, degrades cops, religion, Scots, women, but hey...that's Apocalypse!'

"Zupko acknowledges that he has also received a similar response. 'Truth be told, I've gotten several offers from other companies. The problem with most of them was that they wanted an exclusive deal, starting with Pussy Crimes. After this experience I'm not ready to go there yet. I learned a big lesson from all this, primarily not to trust anyone until he can back up what he offers, and to put yourself in a position where you have total motherfucking control over your product: creatively, financially, intellectually.

" 'I want to be with a company that, if I want to shoot a girl blowing a fire hydrant out of her ass or I shoot a scene and am later told it's not up to the company's 'standard' --whatever the fuck that means--it's still going to fucking distribute my movie. Also no fucking editor, cameraman, contract girl, etc...is ever going to hold another motherfucking ransom over my head and extort money from me, there's a dozen more out there to replace each and every one of these parasites.

" 'The video's going to be done my fucking way in the time I fucking allow for the money initially agreed upon. Simple as that. My days of believing in the fairness of people in this business is over. Not it's simply this: Fucking Show Me. Again, let's let the fan and marketplace decide what is good and what is not. In retrospect, this is probably the best learning experience I could have ever had, call it the Business of Porn 101."

" 'One XXX video reviewer for a major men's periodical who saw Pussy Crimes and who also asked to remain anonymous for now because of his friendship with Evil Angel called the video 'outrageously brilliant and demented, better than 99% of the garbage released...Maybe John was getting cold feet about how controversial these guys are going to get...Or maybe he's still lost in the delusional fog of Buttman Confidential.'

" 'The president of Arrow Productions, Raymond Pistol, said, having known Zupko, Surewood, and Jay Stone (the third member of Apocalypse) for a long time and knowing the depths of Zupko's depraved imagination perhaps better than anyone (Zupko worked for Pistol in a variety of capacities from 1991-1998), he is happy to have 'the bad boys of porn' aboard the team--albeit temporarily.

" 'We go way back,' Pistol explains, 'and Arrow needs a kick-ass, cutting edge gonzo line to compliment its feature line. Currently, who out there is better than Apocalypse? The attitude of their movies is that of hard rock meets porn. I watched Pussy Crimes and thought it was excellent, gonzo in the purest sense. Right now they've only committed to Pussy Crimes. Hopefully, it'll all work out and turn into a long-term deal and we can do a major publicity campaign around them.'

Zupko: "I've watched Pussy Crimes several times since it was mastered and, for the reasons mentioned above and probably because of all the headaches and problems that went along with it, I will admit that I am not entirely happy with it. Having said that, I will say that I also believe it is a kick ass porno, vastly superior to the majority of the product being spewed onto the market today. Thankfully, everyone outside of John who has watched it so far has agreed and appreciated what I've tried to do in it."

Stone, a former lead singer in a heavy metal band and currently Apocalypse's cameraman, performer, and business partner, shakes his head, "Hey, I'm sorry. I'm probably the biggest perv on planet Earth, having watched over 5,000 pornos and jacked off twice that many times. Believe it or not, I'm also probably Tom's biggest critic and I think Pussy Crimes blows Anal Ball away. Yeah, it's out there, but Tom is just a madman and too much of a neurotic perfectionist and self-critic. Pussy Crimes is better than anything I've seen in three months and I watch almost all the new releases. I'm certainly not worried about it."

Zupko takes a deep drag on his cigarette and grins, "But from now on, it is Apocalypse--Thomas Zupko, Brian Surewood, Jay Stone--against the motherfucking world. I am more motivated than I've ever been before and from now on I will go even more over the top. I am an obsessed deviant on a one-way road to XXX hell. I will shoot fucking scenes which will inspire the Pope to excommunicate me, which will make the sexually frustrated dykes at NOW plead for my assassination. I will break every motherfucking politically correct rule laid out by every self-serving politically correct organization in porn as if it were nothing more than my God-Given birthright.

"Pussy Crimes is simply a chapter in a body of work which will one day redefine smut. Wait 'till you see what I got in store for you next."

Zupko concludes that one of the main reasons he chose Arrow to distribute Pussy Crimes was because of his history with Pistol. "God knows we've had our differences in the past, "the mad director explains, "but I've known him a long time and he's almost always been fair with me.

"The one thing I don't expect from him is the unexpected. And that's all I want to deal with right now. We'll release Pussy Crimes and go from there." Pistol says that Pussy Crimes will be given a push at the East Coast Video Show and be released sometime in mid-October.