Joone Interview 2006 - Joone's Bio & Movies

INTERVIEW: JOONE 2006

We are here with Joone the head of Digital Playground and the director of "Pirates." The movie that is sure to sweep the AVN Awards.

Don't jinx it.

I just handed Joone the Rog Reviews Critics' Choice Award for Best Feature.

Thank you very much.

Let's talk a little bit about the movie. How did it come about?

We were in Bora Bora shooting "Island Fever 3" and for some reason Evan (Stone) had a pirate outfit with him. He would walk around talking to tourists in his pirate voice. We ended up making a short movie that we put onto the DVD extras that was just Evan doing crazy things. We came back from that shoot and we saw how it looked edited and decided that we should make a pirate movie.

Had you seen "Conquest" the pirate movie that Wicked made several years back?

I saw it when it came out.

How did you approach this one so that it would be different from the Wicked project?

As an artist you just approach the story you want to tell. You don't go into it thinking that you want it to be like something, or not like something. For me I wanted to have Evan in there. You know with Evan in there it's going to be a comedy. To me he is the Bob Hope of porn. I knew that Jesse and Carmen would be in it and you slowly start to see the characters forming in your head. They dictate what the story will be. I wanted to give it more of a magical twist and create a world where anything could happen. That was my main goal. One of the main inspirations came from my favorite ride at Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean. If you watch the movie you will see something from the ride that you might pick up.

Janine and Tommy Gunn have major roles in the movie, but they play it less for comedy. The movie gets serious at times.

In order to have comedy, you have to have someone to play it straight. If everyone is trying to be funny, then the movie won't be funny. I remember one my professors in school told us "How do you make something loud? Put it next to something that is not loud." In the same respect, how do you make something funny? You put it next to something that is not funny.

Was there anyone who really surprised you when you saw the finished product?

Someone who was a non-sex character, Wu Chow. This is a guy who is not an actor, he's a jeweler. We were looking for an Asian guy, he's a friend of a friend and when we got him on the set he was just so damn funny. He became a superstar side character.

When I saw the movie at the premier, one of the biggest cheers came when Brian Surewood showed up on screen. Was casting him just a given?

I had never worked with Brian before. Someone mentioned him when we started casting. For me, he is a pirate. All he had to do was show up.

This was a joint venture between Digital Playground and Adam & Eve. We don't see that very often. Was it a difficult thing to put together?

Not at all. Our main reason to get together wasn't financial. It was for marketing reasons. They are very good at what they do and have the largest catalog sales in the United States. We knew that if they were part owners of the movie, they would push it heavily. Their contract star Carmen brought a lot to the screen. I'm not into girl/girl scenes, but the scene she did with Jesse was amazing.

That scene looked like half sex-half wrestling. How much of that did you have to director and how much was just two girls battling for supremacy?

I like to set scenes up for the girls and then let them go. It depends on the scene. Some scenes I control because it has to be a certain way and others you just go with your instinct. It is almost like playing jazz. Don't force it, just let it evolved. When I am sitting behind the monitor and a scene needs direction, I give it direction. When it's going well I leave it alone. It is knowing when to direct and when not to that makes it work.

Janine and Jesse also have a high energy scene. Jesse also works with Scott Nails and looks like she's trying to kill herself with his dick. Was the high intensity of the sex something you planned going in?

I wanted to have really good sex. This movie is different from the "Island Fever" stuff. It isn't slow motion. When you slow things down you lose some of the intensity.

We all applaud the fact that we finally get to see a hot feature without slow motion sex.

I always say that when you have vanilla ice cream, you don't want chocolate in it. When you have chocolate you don't want vanilla. Some people want to hear them moaning and other people don't. If we started making everything the same, then we are leaving big groups of people out. Our features may not please the raincoaters, but it can't be all the same.

It is really nice to see a feature with such good sex.

One of our major goals was to make a good movie that has really good sex.

The decision to CGI the ships as opposed to renting one and taking it out on the water, how did that come about?

Cost. To take a ship out and get some of the shots would have been too costly. We shot all of the on-deck stuff on a boat that was docked. For us to take the boat out with a crew would have been three times the cost. We couldn't have done it with our budget.

The CGI is very good in this movie. One of the best was the beach scenes with the skeletons. Some people have speculated that it was another nod to a Hollywood movie. Was that intentional?

Absolutely. I did a couple of homages and that was one of them. I just saw the trailer for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and there is a scene just like that with natives chasing him down the beach.

Are there any other things we should look for in the movie?

The part from the ride, that one and nothing else I can think of.

Any chance we will see a sequel?

I have gotten a lot of requests for one. Everyone seems to want to see a part two. A couple months ago I started thinking about a first scene and it blew my mind. Now I have to do it.

You may have trouble bringing Tommy back.

I was talking to him about that. There may be a way.

Were you surprised by how good he was in the movie?

From the moment I wrote that character I didn't think about anyone but Tommy playing the character. There was no question who was going to play it. I had worked with him before and I had a feeling about what he could bring to the table.

He and Janine were both fantastic and should win awards.

I agree.

Any future projects we should talk about?

The next big movie is hinted at in the audio commentary. It's more modern. I didn't want to jump right into "Pirates 2." Keep watching. Thank you for all the support and any time anyone has comments, email us at info@digitalplayground.com. I read all of those comments and all of the registration cards that come in.

Congratulations and good luck tonight.

Thank you and thank you for the award. It means a great deal to us all.

Joone's Bio & Movies