Lexington Steele intends to make 2004 his year – and he’s off to a good start: only one week into the year and he’s launched his own distribution company, signed a deal with a major novelty manufacturer for a signature series, and signed up for a second season of his talk show on Playboy TV.
When Lexington Steele announced that he was leaving the Red Light District, many people wondered who would be the lucky company to land distribution rights for Steele’s Mercenary Pictures, the studio that he owns –and for the most part, the only studio he performs for. At the time, Steele vowed that then on he’d be the only distributor of his product – and he stuck to his guns.
“I don’t feel any different now [that’s he’s distributing his own product]. I’ve always felt like it was my product, it was never any one else’s. People buy my titles because I make them – not because someone threw their name on the box cover,” Steele told AVN.com
On January 29, Mercenary Pictures will release and distribute Man Hammer in both VHS and DVD formats, an appropriate title considering the video will star Steele, who will also direct the video.
Man Hammer will be the first title released by Mercenary Pictures since the back-to-back AVN Male Performer of the Year parted ways with the Red Light District.
While he can’t reveal the identity of the person he hired to head his sales department yet, Steele indicated that he feels he’s brought someone very capable on board to handle those duties.
“It’s a person who was recommended very highly to me by Danny Doran of Cal Vista,” Steele said. “Actually Danny said he’d talk to this person about who I should work with – but when he mentioned what I was doing, the guy decided he wanted to take it on himself.”
“The main thing is that I need to get my titles back up to the price range they deserve to be in,” Steele said. “I’ll be selling my titles at prices comparable to what Anabolic was. The Red Light District had apparently dropped the prices down to levels I wasn’t happy with.”
Man Hammer will be a hardcore series similar to Balls Deep and Up Your Ass - interracial hardcore sex with multiple partners and tons of anal in each scene.
Steele has already signed a new director to help flesh out Mercenary’s product line – Domina X. “She was selling commercially viable videos off of her Website and she had talked to a number of studios in the industry, but those deals never came through,” Steele said. “I recognize her as a real directing talent so I’m glad to give her the opportunity to get her stuff out there.”
Domina X will take over the Black Reign series that Steele started while the Red Light District distributed his product. “What better way to launch a new director than by letting her take over the reigns of a series that already has a fan base,” Steele said.
Domina X will also shoot a tranny line and a gay.
Steele is also proud that Topco has signed both he and his girlfriend of four years, Vanessa Blue, to a joint deal to create a signature collection called “Blue Steele”, that will be marketed to the urban couples market. “I had been waiting for the right time and the right situation and this was it,” Steele said.
Steele has also just signed on for a second season of his Playboy TV talk show Lex and the City.
Steele is currently searching for a suitable location in Chatsworth to serve as his base of operations.
Distributors interested in ordering from Mercenary Pictures should contact 1-866-289-1414 or 818-340-8906 or email [email protected].
