from www.bleedingcool.com – Axel Braun has had a long and varied career as a director of pornographic films, from the Big Cock Seductions Series to The Squirting Adventures Of Dr.G to Asspirations Asstronomical.

But of late, he’s begun to specialise in porn parodies – taking existing intellectual properties, and doing the porno version, protected under US parody law. This Is Not Happy Days, Star Trek XXX, a new musical Grease XXX production, they were certainly popular. But it was the Batman XXX production, released later this month, that caused such a fuss, with record interest and preorders.

To the extent that production company Vivid has created a new imprint headed up by Axel Braun producing nothing but superhero porn parody productions.

I spoke to Braun in his production offices in sunny Los Angeles this morning. While I was still in cold, foggy London of course. But before we talked Batman, Braun wanted to talk about his current project, Superman XXX- A Porn Parody.

Just as Braun chose the Batman TV series to previously base his parody on, this time he’s chosen the Christopher Reeve/Richard Donner movies to target. And he’s going somewhere that they never went. And not just by adding sex. You really will believe a man can fly – because he is!

I’ve cast a sky diving instructor in the role of Superman. Which means we are going to have shots where he’s flying for real. He’ll jump off a plane, have his arms extended in front of him, we’ll conceal a parachute under his cape. I mean a lot will have to be green screen. But we will have genuine shots of Superman flying.

And presumably getting up to other things on the way down as well. One thing that comes over strongly is that Braun feels he is a real comic book fan and that he’s bringing this sensibility, geekiness and obsessiveness to his work. You know, making porn films. Bleeding Cool has already written about the lengths (fifteen inches at the last count) that Braun went to to create as close a facsimile to the Batman TV show as possible.

The costumes were the most important thing in pre production. I had several made that I had to refuse, they were not what I wanted. Naming new names, I found the original fabrics, I found people with the right patterns, the original designers and it all came came together.

I’m sure it did, Axel. And it seems getting the right performance is all about the costumes too.

There’s no trace of Dale DaBone in the movie, he puts on the cowl, he is Adam West, in delivery, in voice. Even in rehearsals, it was only when the helmet came on that he sounded right. Then choosing the crew and the actors, Tori Black who plays Catwoman is booked up so many months in advance, but she *is* Catwoman.” Randy Spears who plays the Joker, I insisted grew a moustache, so we could cover it up, just as with Cesar Romero.

I’m a fan, I’m not just trying to make a buck. I’m not just putting a comic book title on some crappy porn film. I’ve very respectful to the source material, just as I was on Star Trek or on Happy Days. The response of fans has been very positive, they’ve appreciated my attention to detail and that I’m not disrespectful – I laugh with the shows, not at them.

And there’s more on the way. Braun is already preparing to follow Superman XXX with Spider-Man XXX. And he has relatively radical plans.

The Spider-Man costume, I have had a perfect replica of the movie costume made. I’m basing the look and feel on the Spider-man movies, but just like Hollywood, I will be rebooting the franchise. I will have an origin story, but the main villain will be Elektro, someone not seen in the films. I will also have a love triangle between Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker.

I also wondered about projects he’s like to do that weren’t on Vivid’s list

I’d love to do Kick Ass! I loved it, I was at the premiere, all the way through I was thinking we could do this, we could do that. It even has “ass” in the title. It’s just a matter of it making sense financially.

Yes, it seems that Kick-Ass’s less-than-stellar performance at the US box office mean has meant that the likelihood of a porn parody is rather flaccid. But were there any comic characters from Braun’s home country of Italy he’d like to visit in this fashion.

Diabolik. That would be a dream come true, but no one knows him in America. I mean they tried to do a film years ago, Danger: Diabolik but… listen if any Italian distributor is reading this, I would love to make a Diabolik porn parady porn film. Love to. Get in touch!

I’m sure they will, Axel.But someone who hasn’t been in touch is Warners. Axel Braun is familiar with the art gallery that was shut down by Warners after showing a series of paintings featuring Batman kissing Robin. But he has yet to receive one legal letter from Warners regarding this project.

I haven’t received anything. But we’ve done our homework, the lawyers have performed due diligence.

And even outside of the US, where certain territories are not protected by parody law, the titles are sold successfully without legal challenge. It may well be that Wareners and the like just don’t want to give these projects any more publicity.

But before the release of Batman XXX, Braun is about to have another brush with the mainstream. A new movie coming out later this month, Pimp, sees Axel Braun fictionalised as a character in the sex industry played by Cory Johnson.

I guess it’s time for Axel to discover just what it’s like to be parodied himself…

Check out behind the scenes clips:
www.bleedingcool.com/2010/05/12/axel-braun-of-batman-xxx-talks-to-bleeding-cool