Porn Does IMAX One Better in 3-D

(San Diego)--Riding the wave of hoopla surrounding an international 16-minute peek at James Cameron's wildly anticipated epic Avatar, the adult film industry borrowed a page from the Cameron playbook to preview its first foray into 3-D and IMAX screen exhibition.

In a press conference attended by a dozen high-profile adult film actors, Wet Entertainment president Henry "Hy" Hardin, in a form-fitting t-shirt emblazoned with STRAIGHT OUTTA CHATSWORTH, previewed footage from the studio's monster screen 3D feature debut, a swashbuckler fantasy titled Crossed Tongues.

Of the film, which was shot in Hi-8 video and transferred to digital to preserve the genre's trademark shoddy look, Hardin declared the new format "The Jazz Singer for adult movies," alluding to the first sound film. "A dozen or so of our all-night theaters have invested heavily in the equipment necessary to provide a full-immersion experience for our audiences, and we have two IMAX-style venues as well," he explained. "This is a big thrust into the mainstream."

The triple-X industry, which has banked on virtually every other form of enhancement in the past two decades, is at the threshold of competing toe-to-toe with big studio films.

In a time of flaccid DVD sales and a decline in the ability of above-the-title talent to "open" a film, Hardin expects the 3D format to not only lift adult theater attendance--which has gone soft since the video era-- but also boost home viewing. "We expect the CL-IMAX format to bring in more than half of our box office," Hardin said.

"It should play really well on the CL-IMAX screens, even in Hi-8," announced veteran porn actress Pia Majora. "I'm delighted to have my part in it." Majora, 23, lamented the paucity of roles for older actresses. "Lately I've been typed as a cougar or MILF, but over the years I've learned how to really take on a role, and Crossed Tongues shows that I can still compete with the younger actresses who don't yet have my depth. When you're sharing the screen with talent like [costar] Trench Piler, you learn to stretch."

"We're very proud of this," said Tongues director Reed Phalco. "It's a whole new way to connect with our audience." After the showing, fans that braved 100+ degree San Fernando Valley heat for a chance at the coveted preview tickets were stunned.

"It was sensory overload and then some," said Dean Wheeler, 24, a student at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. "The camera work was very fluid, and the minimalist dialog made it easy to follow multiple plotlines. The whole thing was very Tarantino-meets-DeMille, with a flavoring of Scorsese in his verite days."

Chester Boyler, 48, of Van Nuys was "swept away" by the visual effects. "A lot of people were ducking in their seats," he said, mopping perspiration from his upper lip. "The willing suspension of disbelief with such state-of-the-art filmmaking is a hard trick to pull off, but Phalco is at the top of his creative powers. You forget you're watching a movie," Boyler added.

One fan, moved to buy on the spot half a dozen tickets for Tongues' November premiere, called it "the most uncompromising porn epic of this decade--possibly of our generation."

"I was on the edge of my seat," said Majik Patel, who had flown into the San Fernando Valley with a group of 150 Japanese businessmen just for the showing. "I had to keep pinching myself."

Within hours of the preview, social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook and dozens of blogs were buzzing with word-of-mouth excitement. The film's stars weren't surprised.

"We know 3-D CL-IMAX sounds like a gimmick, but it's not at all," Majora said. "This is art. It's a means of telling a story. And in porn, it all boils down to story, story, story."

Tongues costars Kimona Meihaus and Piler admit it's a gamble. "It's an ambitious historical epic," Meihaus explained. "It's serious cinema--a harder look at the hunky-pirate-and-slave-mistress-submission genre. And on a 40 x 20 hi-def screen, this is going to bring a whole new dimension to girl-on-girl," Meihaus said. "There won't be a dry hanky in the house."

Hardin said that costs for all-night theater projection upgrades were unavailable, and he sidestepped questions about a rumor that he is in talks to create a film-inspired triple-X ride at ailing Six Flags amusement parks.