LOS ANGELES — Director Axel Braun on Friday announced that he is parting ways with Vivid Entertainment, effective Nov. 1.
Braun, the reigning XBIZ Best Director-Parody winner, has been working with Vivid for the past four years, producing several parody movies that have received industry accolades.
“It’s an absolutely amicable split,” Braun said. “Vivid is a terrific company, and everybody there has always been great to me. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Steven Hirsch, but I simply felt it was time to hit the reset button and challenge myself with different endeavors.”
A 23-year adult industry veteran, Braun first started collaborating with Vivid in late 2009, when he signed a distribution deal for his namesake company Axel Braun Productions. His first ABP title, “Batman XXX,” helped to jumpstart a superhero parody trend that is still going strong today. From Superman to Spider-Man, from Wolverine to Iron Man, there aren’t many costumed crimefighters left that Braun hasn’t parodied.
“I’m first and foremost a comic book fan,” Braun said. “I notoriously obsess over the tiniest details to make sure that the characters I spoof are portrayed as accurately as possible, and I guess that resonates strongly with other fans. It’s easier to give an audience what they want when you’re part of the same demographic.”
But comics are not the only target of Braun’s parodies, which often take on his childhood heroes, like in the case of “Elvis XXX,” or one of his favorites, last year’s award-winning “Star Wars XXX.”
“I’m not going to stop shooting parodies,” assured Braun, who recently signed popular performer Riley Steele to an exclusive two-year contract. “I just want to take ABP in a slightly different direction and expand my catalog, and I feel the need to have more control over every aspect of this phase, and more time to focus on promoting Riley. Meanwhile I will still continue to collaborate with Vivid on the post-production of the many projects that we recently completed, while I’m looking forward to this exciting new stage of my career.”
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