Pierre Woodman

Pierre Woodman

Woodman at work in Cape Town
Born April 29, 1963
Auvergne, France
Nationality French

Pierre Woodman (born April 29, 1963) is a pornographic film director. He is the creator of more than 65 pornographic films, more than 2,000 hardcore scenes, around 1,500 photosets and more than 7,000 castings.

Early life

Woodman began working at 16, taking such jobs as bartender, salesman and store clerk. He joined the army at age 17, and later became a policeman. In 1986, he started a career as a fashion and TV photographer. In 1989, he took part in launching the magazine Hot Video, as a reporter. Beginning in 1992, he worked for Private Media Group, Inc., for which he made several big budget movies, such as The Pyramid ($1.2 million), Tatiana ($600,000), and Riviera ($450,000).

Movies

Woodman, staff and actors at a film set in Australia

In 1997, he launched his series "Casting X" (see below), which is now the biggest-selling series in the X-rated category in the world.

In 1999, faced with a wave of "Gonzo" genre videos, Woodman began to produce and release his Superfuckers series for Private, which ran to 12 chapters. At the end of the year, he received an invitation from Larry Flynt, owner of LFP, Inc. and a millionaire publisher of the magazine Hustler, the second largest adult magazine periodical in the US after Playboy. Hustler was on the verge of bankruptcy and Flynt knew he needed a video department to survive. He asked Woodman to create a series similar to Private and in 2000, Flynt signed a contract with Woodman for $5 million for five years. Woodman began Chapter 13 of Superfuckers for LFP. But unlike Berth Milton, Jr., owner of Private, Flynt spent little on advertising, relying instead solely on the Hustler name and word of mouth to sell products. This bothered Woodman, who made a few big-budget movies, such as Brazilian Snake (2001) ($520,000), Brazilian Snake 2 (2002) and Manipulation (2004) ($430,000), but refused to sign a new contract for LFP in 2005.

In 2004, after playing himself in the big-screen Spanish film Yo Puta, alongside Denise Richards and Daryl Hannah, he did several photo-shoots for fashion magazines, such as Vogue and Blast.

Woodman then launched a program affiliation on the Internet called "Spider-Cash",[1] to distribute its films in the form of video sequences, after Berth Milton, head of Private, asked Woodman to return to work for him in 2005.

Woodman made a trilogy called Sex City, a "porn-remake" that "borrows" much of the storyline of Frank Miller's Sin City, including the use of black-and-white photography with splashes of color inserted throughout the film. Woodman's Sex City was filmed entirely in high definition, with a budget of 540,000 €. The first part was released in May 2006. After five weeks, the film became the best selling in the history of Private, even taking the lead in sales in the U.S. on June 5, 2006.

Nevertheless, in June 2006 Woodman announced that he was leaving Private Media Group for the second time and undertaking his own production and distribution company, Woodman Entertainment,[2] based in Barcelona, where Private Media is also based. From there, he directed a mega-production, a remake of the film Excalibur, with a budget of 800,000 €. This film, titled Xcalibur, was released in May 2007 and draws on an exceptionally large cast of 75 actors and 250 extras, a first in the world of porn.

Woodman continues to work in the fashion world, doing photo-sessions for big-name magazines (Blast magazine cover and layout Sept. 2006) and discovering fashion models from his castings.

"Castings X" productions

Woodman started with his supposed "casting" film series for Private in 1992. According to Woodman's marketing, he claims there was no explicit commercial motivation behind them, but eventually this is how the "Castings X" and "Behind the Scenes" series began. Woodman's marketing claims he recorded video only as a protection against any allegations that might be made of sexual assault, a precaution he thought especially appropriate after boxer Mike Tyson was convicted of rape in an Indianapolis hotel room in 1992.[3]

With the breakup of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Central and Eastern Europe became a new center of pornographic production. Attractive adult actresses were available for a fraction of the cost of American performers. Since 1992, Woodman has spent considerable time in Eastern Europe. This is how he introduced some of the biggest stars in the porn world to Western audiences. Woodman's "Castings X" DVDs,[4] which began to be released in October 1997. They were released by Private between 1997 and 2003, when they began to be issued by Hustler under the label of "Hustler Casting Couch". In April 2008, Woodman announced that Woodman Entertainment would begin new issues of the Casting X series in June 2008.

The scenes are typically filmed in hotel rooms, usually in Central Europe. The film scenarios present the actresses as if they do not really know what the fake porn director does. The storyline of the film presents Woodman as showing the girls a Private magazine or some pornographic images and then inviting them to do something similar to what's displayed in the images.[3] Many starlets have become famous from their contract with Private, which includes scenes for the "Castings X" series, including Silvia Saint, Alexa May, Tania Russof, Judith Fox, Anita Blond, Monica Sweet, Monique Covét, Lenka Gaborova, Cassandra Wilde, Dora Venter, Claudia Ferrari, Cayenne Klein, Anetta Keys, Eve Angel, Nikky Andersson and Angel Dark. In 2006, he contracted Nessa Devil, Divinity Love and the Czech Playmate Caylian Curtis.

Woodman has already released 103 DVDs from his "Casting X" series, featuring mostly European actresses. In an interview, he claimed to have more than 7,000 scenes in stock. In 2009, HBO TV has made a 52mn report about his life called "Pierre Woodman Story".[5]

Personal life

Pierre Woodman and Sophie Paris.

Woodman has been married three times and is the father of two children. He was divorced from the Russian/Latvian porn star Tania Russof in 2000 and since 2002, has lived with the photo model Sophie Paris. He is the father of French writer Alexandra Geyser.[6]

"Woodman" is a pseudonym, which comes from his childhood when he lived in the country and was very good at climbing up trees, so his classmates called him "the man of the woods", which later became shortened to "Woodman". When he started in the entertainment world, he started signing as Pierre "Woodman." In the United States, his name has a double meaning with strong sexual overtones: "wood" is understood as "erection" in expressions such as "morning wood". This double entendre was first explained to him by his friend Jenna Jameson when they first met in Las Vegas in 1995.

Awards and nominations

Notes

  1. ↑ SpiderCash
  2. ↑ Woodman Entertainment
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Digital Podcast interview with Pierre Woodman". Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  4. ↑ Castings Index - CASTINGS 1-10
  5. ↑ "A Pierre Woodman-sztori - HBO Magyarország". Hbo.hu. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  6. ↑ "Galerie Chappe". Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Hot d'Or 1998 Winners". Web.archive.org. 2007-08-25. Retrieved 2014-05-17.
  8. ↑ "Hot d’Or archives presse x, articles sur les Hot d’or". Hot-dor.fr. Retrieved 2014-05-16.
  9. ↑ "2003 FICEB Award winners & nominees". Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  10. ↑ "2004 Award winners & nominees". Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  11. ↑ Barcelona International Erotic Film Festival (2004)
  12. ↑ "Winners of the 2007 FICEB Ninfa Awards". XStarsNews. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  13. ↑ "Barcelona Film Fest Winners". 9 October 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2014.

External links

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