Wikipedia – Lucas Entertainment – Award Winning Lavish Big-Budget Gay Pornography

Lucas Entertainment

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Lucas Entertainment

Website	LucasEntertainment.com Men of Israel

Lucas Entertainment is a New York-based gay pornographic studio started by porn star Michael Lucas, and one of the largest^[1] such studios in the world.^[2][3] The studio is known for lavish, big-budget movies, and it contends that its 2006 film Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita is the most expensive gay porn ever made.^[4][3] The film won 14 GayVN awards in 2007, the current record.^[5]

To expand its direction, the studio hired award-winning industry veteran mr. Pam Doré, gay adult film’s only female videographer, as creative director of film and production in August 2008.^[6] Doré, who began her career at Falcon Video in 1996, was nominated for best director and cinematography at the GayVN Awards for the studio’s 2008 blockbuster Return to Fire Island.^[7]

In May 2009, Lucas Entertainment announced that it was filming on location the first gay porn movie with only Israeli models, billing it as an effort to promote Israeli culture.^[8][9] The company subsequently launched its Men of Israel microsite introducing the actors and film concept.^[10] Lucas has called the film his most important, and it has received widespread coverage from the media, including Israel’s most influential daily, Yedioth Ahronoth.^[10]

In July, the studio announced on Lucas’s blog that it will open a European headquarters in Paris, the site of its current production, Paris Playboys.^[11]

[edit] History

In 1998 Lucas founded his own production company, Lucas Entertainment, with money he earned from working as a male escort.^[12] He based the company in New York City (rather than Los Angeles, where many of the other pornography studios are located), in part, to take advantage of the lack of competition.^[13]

In 2004, Lucas Distribution, Inc., his adult video distribution company, began operations. Lucas directs, produces and stars in his own films under the Lucas Entertainment banner. In March 2009 the studio hired Mr. Pam Doré as creative director of film and production.^[14] Doré was the videographer and editor for NakedSword‘s Tim & Roma Show. Doré, a 12 year veteran of the business, had shot and edited award-winning movies for COLT Studio Group and Black Scorpion Entertainment, amongst others.^[14] She was nominated at the 2009 GayVN Awards for best director and cinematography for the studio’s 2008 blockbuster Return to Fire Island.^[7] In an interview, mr. Pam stated that she fulfills many roles on set, including “kick-ass cameraman, slutty friend or ‘Mommy’ if the boys need a hug or someone to talk with.”^[6]

The studio announced on Lucas’s blog in July 2009 that it was opening a European headquarters in Paris.^[11] The new office will centralize production services, including casting, filming, and promotions. The studio last filmed in France in October 2001 for Inside Paris, and announced it was to begin filming Paris Playboys in the city’s gay district, Le Marais.^[11]

[edit] Productions

A fluffer hands Jake Starr and Erik Grant accouterments for a scene in the studio’s 2008 production Pounding the Pavement.

The studio is known for lavish, big-budget productions that approach gay pornography combining technical filmmaking expertise and raunch.^[4] It gained notoriety for two blockbuster remakes of film classics in the form of 2005′s Michael Lucas’ Dangerous Liasions and 2006′s Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita. The studio released its blockbuster Gigolo in 2007.^[15] The film explored the underworld of New York City escorting and hustling. When same-year The Intern won more GayVN Awards than the big production Gigolo, studio head Lucas was bothered, stating that “even a retard” would not have chosen the one over the other.^[16]

[edit] Michael Lucas’ Dangerous Liaisons

In the summer of 2005 Lucas released Michael Lucas’ Dangerous Liaisons; the film featured celebrity cameos from RuPaul, Boy George, Graham Norton, Bruce Vilanch, Lady Bunny, Amanda Lepore, and Michael Musto.^[17]

[edit] Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita

In 2006, the studio released Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita Parts 1 & 2, a gay pornographic remake of the 1960 Fellini classic La Dolce Vita.^[18] At a budget of $250,000, the studio contends it is the most expensive gay pornographic film ever made.^[3] The film won a record fourteen awards at the 2007 GayVN Awards, winning in every category in which it was nominated.^[19]

In February 2007, International Media Films, Inc., which owns the rights to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, filed suit against Lucas (as Andrei Treivas Bregman), Lucas Entertainment, Inc., and Lucas Distribution, Inc. for trademark and copyright infringement.^[20] The lawsuit seeks to collect unspecified damages and to stop sales of Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita Parts 1 & 2.^[21][22] At the preliminary injunction hearing in April, 2007, the attorney for the plaintiff asked the judge to enjoin further distribution of Lucas’ film, which he refused to do.^[23]

[edit] Men of Israel

In May 2009, Lucas Entertainment filmed the first gay porn film using only Israeli models.^[8] The production was billed as a sexual journey to promote Israeli culture.^[9] In June 2009 the company launched its Men of Israel website to promote the film, which announced its release for July 22.

[edit] Film lines

Lucas Entertainmemnt – The flagship brand featuring gay sex with men in their 20s and 30s.

Lucas Raunch – An extreme fetish line. The first releases were FARTS! and PISS!. In February of 2009 the Canadian Border Services Agency detained and banned both films.^[24] The CBSA’s Policy On The Classification Of Obscene Material states that the “ingestion of someone else’s urine… with a sexual purpose” made the films obscene, which was cause for banning them.^[25]

[edit] Publicity campaigns

The studio is known for attention-grabbing publicity stunts that are often covered by the blogosphere and the New York City media. In 2007 LE sent out a press release stating that Lucas had been found dead in his apartment.^[26] A photo accompanying the release showed what appeared to be a bound, lifeless Lucas with a conspicuous bruise on his face.^[27] New York magazine’s Daily Intel blog questioned the timing of the stunt, which occurred one week after the suprise death of New York performer and Velvet Mafia singer Dean Johnson.^[27] The resulting media attention won the studio an Xbiz Award for Best Publicity Stunt.^[28]

In conjunction with the German publisher Bruno Gmünder, the studio released the photography book Michael Lucas’ Gigolos, which featured many LE models in highly sexualized situations.^[29] It included work by photographer Joe Oppedisano, and was lauded for its high production quality as it was designed to be a pornographic fashion book to accompany the studio’s film release Gigolos.^[29][30]

After the Lucas Raunch releases FARTS! and PISS! were banned in Canada, Lucas released a letter in the media addressed to President Barack Obama asking for him to intercede on the studio’s behalf at an upcoming summit with the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.^[31][32]

The LGBT blog Queerty responded to a studio marketing video that showed Michael Lucas simulating oral sex both with and on a Barbie doll.^[33] While acknowledging the overt attempt to draw traffic to his site with the video as linkbait, Queerty expressed admiration for Lucas’ ability to create buzz for his company in the rapidly changing adult entertainment industry.^[33]

[edit] Awards and recognition

The studio has garnered many GayVN Awards and Adult Erotic Gay Video Awards (“Grabbys”) nominations and wins.^[34] Much of the studio’s press and recognition has focused on the dominating presence of founder Michael Lucas, who has been one of pornography’s most visible stars.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders profiled Lucas in his 2004 book XXX: 30 Porn Star Photographs^[35] and the accompanying HBO documentary Thinking XXX.^[36] Greenfield-Sanders asked Lucas, then still primarily known as a performer, for a list of his ten favorite films; the films he listed were all from his own production company.

At the 2009 GayVN Awards studio head Lucas was inducted in to the GayVN Hall of Fame.

Pornography portal

• List of gay porn stars
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• Pornography

[edit] External links

• Lucas Entertainment website