Sean Michaels’ SMP International will enter into a distribution deal with Red Light District and Platinum X Pictures, pursuant to his signing with the latter company as a director-performer. Michaels emphasized that the agreement is still tentative, but he expects it to be finalized next week.
“We feel it’s a move that will benefit both companies. We’re looking to put out a better product and we think we’ll be able to do that working through PXP and Red Light,” Michaels told AVN.com
Michaels has a long relationship with Red Light owner and Platinum X consultant Dion Giarusso, dating back to 1997 when they worked together at Elegant Angel, where he made movies on a percentage deal. It was shortly afterward that Michaels went independent and set up, with a partner, SMP.
The pact, says Michaels, is “strictly a distribution deal,” and after it goes through, SMP will function primarily as a production company. “The lines that people have been accustomed to and are enjoying will continue: We Go Deep and Sean Michaels Rocks That Ass.” He’ll also keep more recent lines like Asslickers and start some new ones, notably Hot Ass Latinas.
“I haven’t decided on other titles yet. To be honest, certain titles just aren’t moving as well as others. You might as well put money into what people want, and that is my other series that’s relatively new, The Black and The Blonde. We’re on the second volume. I’m really excited about that and Asslickers, because it’s what we do, in my opinion: passionate, hot-ass sex.”
Michaels began his directing career with a gonzo line for Video Team and shot his first feature, Girlz ‘N Da Hood, for Heatwave. Then he hooked up with Anabolic, where he directed Women of Color and the series Sean Michaels Up Your Ass. “They really allowed me to stretch out and do what I wanted to there, which was nice, but, you know… You want to be able to own your own thing after a while, and that’s what I’ve achieved here.”
The past five years with SMP, he says, have been “a little bit of a struggle, as with any new company, but we’ve been getting better with each year. And the future seems quite brilliant, if things work out they way we anticipate at Platinum X and Red Light.”
Like the other directors in the Red Light/Platinum X stable, he’ll be traveling a lot, mostly to Eastern Europe. He has already opened a bank account in Prague, where he plans to start a small production company recruiting talent “not only from the Czech Republic, but from Slovakia, Poland, Russia and Budapest.”
Back home Michaels plans to do more of his Erotic Fashions Shows, which he’s staged at clubs and hotels in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and he hopes to make a mark in mainstream movies. To that end he’s been studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute. He finished his first semester last June and starts his next right after the Adult Entertainment Expo next year. His mainstream career kicked into gear with an appearance in the film The Hillside Strangler, shot in July, which qualified him for membership in the Screen Actors Guild.
“I’m going to Lee Strasberg not because I want to leave the business but because I want to do feature films. I just want to get in there and act. With the public out there that support me, why not try to support me on the mainstream side as well? It’s worth a fuckin’ try, you know. Somebody’s going to make that crossover,” he laughs, “and damn it, it might as well be me.”
