Young gun director Tony T. wants out of his contract with Anabolic Video Productions. And Anabolic says they are going to grant him his wish.
“The bottom line is we want to let him out of his contract,” said Gregg Alan, head of Anabolic sister company Diabolic Video. “He can get out of it at any time, although I don’t want him to leave.”
Tony, 22, who signed a three-year directing pact with Anabolic last year, told AVN.com today that he’s frustrated with the amount of money that he’s making at the company, even though he knew going into the deal what the financial terms were.
“The deal that they gave me, it’s all an illusion,” he said. “I told them [Alan and his partner, Anabolic head Chris Alexander] I’m gonna finish all my movies for them, and then I’m gonna leave.” He said he plans to start his own production company
Tony said that under the terms of his contract, he gets to keep any portion of his $23,000-per-title budget he doesn’t spend, and that after 10 titles, he gets $1 per sale of each piece. But, he noted, he’s yet to bring a movie in under budget and complained that Anabolic “takes forever” to release his titles. “So even if I get the 10 movies done, I gotta wait til they sell them, which could take two years.” Contributing to his frustration, he said, is that his movies are selling well, yet he’s seeing none of the profits.
Alan, however, said that Tony also gets $5,000 per completed title straight into his pocket. “It shocks me that he left that out,” Alan said. Tony, though, said he’s only received a single $5,000 payment, even though at least three of his Anabolic titles — I Wanna Get Face Fucked, Balls Deep 8 and Mouth 2 Mouth — have been released.
Alan said an untested young director like Tony “has to earn his stripes” before he starts making money off his titles. “They all want to be making what Chris and I are making, within four months. Well, I’ve been at this 15 years.”
Alan said he’s also benefited Tony in other ways, such as helping him save some $10,000 on a new luxury car he bought. Alan said he buys and sells cars on the side.
Tony said that while Alan told him he is willing to nullify the contract, Tony he’s had trouble getting Alan to sit down with him to finalize the nullification. “He keeps telling me, ‘whenever I have the time. You’re not my first priority.’ And that’s not right. After I made them all this money. So I feel they don’t want to let me out of my contract.”
But Alan said, “It’s hard to get him to sit down in front of us for five or 10 minutes. He gets too emotional.
“Also, we can’t just tear his contract up, because a contract also entails copyrights and trademarks and all that other stuff. He thinks you can just rip it up. Then we have to call our lawyer and say, ‘Draft something that just lets him out of his contract.’”
“Look, nobody else would have given him a shot to direct,” Alan noted, since Tony had no prior directing experience. “But now, he has a couple good movies out for us, and that gives him a shoo-in somewhere else,” which, Alan noted frustrates him.
Alan said he believes the real reason Tony wants to leave is because of tensions between him and fellow Anabolic/Diabolic director Chico Wang, aka Wanker Wang. Tony claimed that Wang and an editor at the company “erased” one of his movies from the company computer, but that was after he told Alan and Alexander he wanted to leave.
“I told them, ‘Hey, I’m trying to leave politely, but you people are erasing my movies from the computer. I can’t take that anymore. Here’s the money I owe you. I’m out. I quit. I don’t work for you anymore.”
Despite the conflict, Alan said he still likes Tony as a person and as a director and performer. “I’m not trying to hold the kid up,” Alan said.
Tony entered the business in 2003, establishing a reputation as an intense, high-energy young performer, and was nominated by AVN as 2004’s Best Male Newcomer.
His Anabolic releases have been getting excellent reviews in AVN. I Wanna Get Face Fucked was a Spotlight Pick, Balls Deep 8 received a AAAA rating and Mouth 2 Mouth will be an Editor’s Choice in the April issue.
