LOS ANGELES—According to a project update on Kickstarter.com posted yesterday, principal photography has now been completed on the James Deen-produced/Bryn Pryor-directed steampunk western Cowboys & Engines.
"As the sun was setting over the ridge of the hills behind us, we rolled the last shot on Cowboys & Engines," wrote Pryor, better known to the adult industry as director Eli Cross. "It was a close-up of Libby Letlow as Guinivere Turner, ducking down behind a rock as yours' truly assaulted her with fake bullet hits from a paintball gun. And then the direct sunlight was gone. The shadows in the valley of our dry riverbed location began to lengthen, and our day was done. To say I'm thrilled with what we were able to capture is an understatement; I'm positively ecstatic, and I think this film is going to be something truly special."
He's got good reason to think so. Besides having wrangled some major Hollywood talent in starring roles, like Battlestar Galactica's Richard Hatch, Star Trek's Walter Koenig and O Lucky Man's (and Caligula's) Malcolm McDowell, an astonishing number of actors and crew personnel from the adult industry have also added major contributions. A quick glance at the cast and crew list discloses performances by Penny Pax, Lily Cade (also the set's "horse wrangler") and Derrick Pierce, with Kylie Ireland, Andy Appleton, Satine Phoenix and Sean Rivera working behind the scenes, as well as long-time Pryor associates (and former AVN employees) Ken Michaels and Jim Van Cooney—and of course, James Deen as one of the producers.
And we particularly liked principal performer Chase McKenna's self-description of her talents on her official web page: "Los Angeles, CA based actress, producer, director, writer, hypnotherapist, handwriting analyst, fire juggler, and monkey trainer."
Ireland and Appleton, of course, were the creative art directors of Axel Braun's Star Wars XXX, and some of the hardware they've created for Cowboys & Engines (not to mention some candid portraits by industry photog Ben Hoffman) can be found here.
"It's impossible to properly thank everyone involved in a project like this," Pryor said in the project update. "Like most films, Cowboys & Engines was a huge team effort, and I'm honored and gratified that everyone gave their all and then some to make this little movie seem so much bigger than it is."
As noted in previous reports, Cowboys & Engines follows Cade Ballard (Hatch), the war-weary former ambassador from the nation of Texas, as he meets Guinivere Wheeler (Libby Letlow), a woman who proves to be as dangerous as she is charming. When they encounter Professor Nicholas Timéon (Koenig) and learn that his temporal engine, a machine with incredible destructive power, has been stolen by would-be conqueror Dr. Clay (McDowell), Cade and Guinivere set off to save San Francisco from total destruction.
The short film is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2013.
Pictured, l-r: Chase McKenna, Penny Pax.
