Joone (director)

Joone
Born c. 1969 (age 46–47)[1]
Other names Joone, Ali Joone,[2] Joonie
Alma mater University of Southern California
Occupation Photographer, director & producer
Years active 1998–2008 (porn director)[3]
Organization Digital Playground
Diosa Spirits
Spouse(s) Samantha Lewis (divorced)[1]
No. of adult films 21 as director (per IAFD)[3]

Joone is an Iranian-American entrepreneur,[4] photographer,[5] director and producer. For directing pornographic films, he won AVN Award twice. In 1993, Joone founded American pornographic movie studio Digital Playground[2] and was a co-owner of the company until it was acquired by Manwin in 2012.

Career

Ali Davoudian better known by the pseudonym Joone,[6][7][8] was born in Iran and graduated from USC School of Cinematic Arts.[1]

He founded the Digital Playground company[2] in 1993 when he was 25 and still a student,[1] initially making adult CD-ROM computer games.[9]

As a photographer, his works has appeared on Maxim, People, Front, Bizarre, Stuff, FHM, Arena, Cosmopolitan, Loaded and Ralph.[5]

At some time, he was Creative director of Brain Zoo Studios.[10]

Commenting on the transition of the pornography industry from the underground economy to mainstream corporate acceptance, the company's founder said: "I look at the porn business where Vegas and gambling was in the 70's… Vegas was still mob-owned and they were making the transition between these small groups of people to being corporate owned… I feel the same exact thing is going to happen with adult".[11]

Joone is considered a "ground-breaker" in the world of interactive adult technology, introducing the Virtual Sex line of DVDs, in which the viewer can "command" a famous pornographic actress by selecting from a menu of explicit scenes.[9][12] The first film in the series was released in 1998.[9] In the series, the actress looks directly at the camera and appears to talk directly to the viewer.[9] According to Joone, "It's the closest you'll ever get to having sex with our girls without really having sex with them".[9]

Joone has directed the highly successful pornographic films Pirates and Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge. Digital Playground FX is accredited for the CGI work for Pirates and Pirates II and other Digital Playground features such as Top Guns and Body Heat.

In January 2012, alongside his ex-wife Samantha Lewis who was co-owner, CEO and President of Digital Playground, he reached an agreement with Fabian Thylmann to sell the company to Manwin. On the acquisition, Joone commented: “To me this deal is no different than the acquisition of Pixar by Disney, The consumer is going to see more blockbusters, big-budget productions, and it’s our goal to create the next genre of adult entertainment. This acquisition is a marriage between two industry leaders. Adult entertainment is changing and Manwin has a lead on technology.” The price or terms of the deal was not disclosed, but it was announced that Lewis and Joone will "continue to oversee the studio",[13] however, it was reported in March that Manwin has released Lewis and some other employees in orther to make changes.[14]

Other ventures

Joone is co-owner of "Diosa Spirits" tequila alongside his wife Brandy, Jesse Jane and her husband Rich.[15][16]

Partial filmography

As director

Awards and nominations

Personal life

Joone is married.[24]

His brother, Mohammed Davoudian, owns California-based Brain Zoo Studios[7] which is active on CGI animation and Sound effects.[25]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "THE SOFT MACHINE: Digital Playground’s High-End XXX Vids Have Redefined the Craft of Making Commercial Porn With Solid-Gold Results". GramPonante. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Josh Lipton. "Coming Soon: XXX In 3D". Minyanville. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  3. 1 2 Joone
  4. ↑ "Inside Joone". xrentdvd.com. 2006-01-19. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  5. 1 2 "Joone". AVN. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Porn Industry May Decide DVD Format War". Fox News. January 22, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Jay Cridlin (January 18, 2006). "Yo ho, yo ho ... oh no!". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Blaue Laserdioden im Rotlichtbezirk: Pornofilmer als Schiedsrichter im Duell um neuen DVD-Standard?". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). January 26, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Dana Kennedy (2003-08-17). "The Fantasy of Interactive Porn Becomes a Reality". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  10. ↑ "Talk About Digital Playground’s "Pirates" Day". GramPonante. 20 September 2013. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Jeffreys, Sheila (2008). The Industrial Vagina: The Political Economy of the Global Sex Trade. Taylor & Francis. p. 73. ISBN 0-415-41233-1.
  12. ↑ Dines, Gail & Humez, Jean McMahon (2002). Gender, race, and class in media: a text-reader. SAGE. p. 50. ISBN 0-7619-2261-X.
  13. ↑ Pardon, Rhett (2012-01-17). "Manwin Acquires Digital Playground - XBIZ Newswire". XBIZ Newswire. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
  14. ↑ "UPDATED: Manwin Makes Changes at Digital Playground". XBIZ Newswire. 2012-03-08. Retrieved 2015-04-02.
  15. ↑ "Jesse Jane: "I don’t feel anyone is my competition"". GramPonante. 7 October 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  16. ↑ "Final: Ali Joone is Not a Terrorist". adultfyi.com. 2013-06-05. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  17. ↑ "AVN Award Winners Announced". AVN. January 9, 2006. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  18. ↑ "Joone Digital Playground's founder and the director of 'Pirates' holds up his award at AVN Awards Show in Las Vegas". santabanta.com. January 9, 2006. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  19. ↑ Rhett Pardon (21 April 2006). "Porn Industry Shows Up for XRCO Awards". XBIZ. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  20. 1 2 3 David Sullivan (2009-01-11). "2009 AVN Award-Winners Announced". AVN.com. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
  21. ↑ "Gewinner 2009". Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  22. 1 2 Paul Fishbein, "Pirates II, Evil Angel Big Winners at 2009 Hot d’Or Awards", AVN.com. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
  23. 1 2 "Hot d’Or archives presse x, articles sur les Hot d’or". Hot-dor.fr. Retrieved 2014-05-09.
  24. ↑ "Joone and his wife". AVN. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
  25. ↑ Zahed, Ramin (December 19, 2013). "Brain Zoo Works on Marvel’s ‘Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United’". Animation Magazine. Retrieved July 26, 2014.

External links

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