XXX Blue, Spending Green
It's the start of the movie-awards season--not just in Hollywood, but over the hill in the San Fernando Valley, home to the pornography industry. This week Adult Video News will announce nominees for its annual show, held in Las Vegas each January. And one film seems poised to pile up honors the way "The Aviator" dominated this year's Oscars. "Pirates," released in September, is already being hailed as a blue movie for the ages.
Filmed in California and Florida at a cost of more than $1 million (its producer calls it the most expensive porno in history), it features lavish special effects, epic sea battles and skillful swordplay. The director of "Pirates," who uses the name Joone, says he decided to splurge for a high-quality film that would stand out from the low-budget clutter. So far it's paid off: he says it's already sold more than 100,000 copies. (Many pornos sell just 5,000.) "This is a landmark achievement in our business," says Paul Fishbein, Adult Video News president. "The production values are incredible--if you took the sex scenes out, it [still] looks better than a lot of independent films that make it to the big screen." We'll have to take his word for it.
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Daniel McGinn is a national correspondent, based in Boston. He writes about management and other topics, and also helps oversee Newsweek's partnership in the Kaplan-Newsweek MBA program, which launched in late 2006.
McGinn joined Newsweek in 1992 as a summer intern. He worked in New York until 1996, when he moved to Detroit as a correspondent and bureau chief. In Detroit he covered the auto industry and other Midwest business stories. He moved to Boston in 1999. He has written cover profiles of business leaders like Bill Ford and Jack Welch, along with cover stories on topics ranging from the economy to marriage to children's television. His work as won awards from the Automotive Press Association and the National Association of Real Estate Editors, and he was twice ranked among America's 30 best young business reporters.
McGinn is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College, and he also holds an MBA from Auburn University. His freelance writing has appeared in Wired, Inc., Fast Company and The Boston Globe Magazine. He has appeared as a guest on NBC's Today Show, NPR, CNBC and MSNBC. His first book, "HOUSE LUST: America's Obsession with our Homes," will be published by Doubleday in December 2007. A native of New Jersey, McGinn and his wife live in Massachusetts with their three children.
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