PHILADELPHIA – Two days after ABC debuted a new hour-long weekly TV show by the same name, Hotmovies.com will premiere the original, award-winning Scoundrels starting today for a limited window.
Thus, 27 years to the month after its original release, Cecil Howard’s legendary masterpiece of adult cinema will make a new kind of history.
For the first time since the advent of Internet Video On Demand, a movie will run on planned limited release. Scoundrels, which won AVN’s first ever Best Film Award in 1983, as well as Best Director and Best Editing, will be available to the popular website’s viewers for one-month only, with no further distribution plans in the hopper.
“It’s an historic deal in so many ways,” said HotMovies director of business development James Cybert.
“Here is the first movie to win the porn equivalent of a best picture Oscar, with a living legend in his first serious starring role, by the greatest adult director to have ever lived. Then, you take all that, and you have 30 days to watch it. You may never have this chance again. It’s a whole new way of doing things but we believe it’s worth it for this man and this movie.”
The movie – shot, like all of Howard’s earlier works, on 35MM film – stars HotMovies spokesman and porn all-star Ron Jeremy is his first non-comedic feature role, as well as Hustler covergirl Copper Penny in her lone foray into adult movies.
Jeremy said he relished working on Howard’s ambitious films because they aimed to be more than just porn flicks. “Back in those days, when you worked on his films, you worked maybe 10 days as an actor and then maybe one day of sex,” said Jeremy. “Wake up in the morning and feel like an actor that day…. That’s why it was called the golden age of porn—the early ’80s.”
HotMovies plans to give the movie premium placement throughout its site in an effort to inspire further cooperation from Howard, whose movies are unavailable on DVD.
“I can’t wait to bring this movie to the masses again,” said Howard. “I’m trusting HotMovies to do a special job with this one.”
Howard currently distributes exclusively through HotMovies.com. The site is the only place to see a selection of the acclaimed director’s other award-winning efforts, such as Babylon Pink and Neon Nights. Cybert said he’s in discussions with the cinematic legend to bring even more of his classics to the small screen, including Firestorm, Snake Eyes, Foxtrot, Platinum Paradise and Star Angel, but he knows a big month for Scoundrels is the first step.
“We are hoping our audience will really support us and Howard both on this one,” said Cybert. “This is the month to visit the site because we’ve worked hard to make this possible and this may be your last chance to see one of the greatest achievements in the history of adult movies.”