"I think it's very important that when we're making commercial product, we think in terms of what our audience wants, and not necessarily project our own unique sexual kinks onto our audience," philosophizes Casino Productions principal Lynne Lopatin. "Therefore, my audience is midwestern America watching cable channels. They want something that will get them sexually excited without insulting, especially, the women they're having sex with. Women are very insulted by perfect bodies, no emotions, unreachable situations. They need to feel it's okay for them to be sexy in their imperfections. So that's my goal, and on top of that, to start portraying ethnic people sexually in an honest and fair manner."
Despite the recent death of Lopatin's partner, Bruce Walker, her dedication to producing quality ethnic fare is undiminished.
And the Lopatin/Walker team had been doing it for years, starting with the well-received Tales from the South Side, which they did for Video Team.
"It was intended to be a sitcom, a look at a strip mall on the south side of Any City, USA. Everybody in it's black. They're all business owners; they're policemen; a woman runs a video store - they're business people; your normal middle-class black people. No gangstas, no hos and no back [except] Tony Eveready, who plays Lowlife Freddy. It was hysterical, but [the editor] cut it with a lead hatchet; ruined it completely."
Lopatin herself directed Little White Lies for VCA, but she's most proud of the couple's first Casino project, after linking up with partner Forrest Concannon, titled Indigo Moods. Lopatin notes that this was the first all-ethnic feature to be cablecast on the Spice channel.
Casino's current project is tentatively titled Working Stiff, about a day in the life of a porn star, played by Dave Hardman, who's torn between his trophy wife (newcomer Eve Eden) and a pair of ethnic honeys (Cumisha Amado and Keanna). The feature started out fairly normal, Lopatin says, "but Monty Python got in there somehow and took it away from me, and it just turns out that a typical day in the life of your average porno star has nothing to do with reality. It's becoming a very surreal thing.
"I do want to break all the rules," she cautions, "if the rules mean that the girls have to look like escapees from Jim Holliday movies - let's break that one right away. I want women that an average woman in the Midwest can identify with."
For more information on Casino Productions, contact Lopatin at (818) 769-0398.
