Page 31 - AVN SEPTEMBER 2024

“I think it’s an amazing storyline, and I can’t wait to see the effects.”
When you’re following up a bona fide behemoth of a movie the likes of Machine Gunner—which not only claimed the preeminent Grand Reel trophy at this year’s AVN Awards ceremony, but in so doing became the first Digital Playground release to earn AVN’s top prize since a little arthouse picture called Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge in 2009—it almost goes without saying that you’re going to be aiming mighty high.
In the case at hand, we’re talking outer space.
Well ... sort of. Much in keeping with its title, the plot particulars of Project X, DP’s new sci-fi mega-production helmed by Gunner director Ricky Greenwood, are shrouded in a bit of mystery on the day we arrive to a very nondescript office building rather far-flung from the triple-X hive of Porn Valley to watch some of it get lensed. The only thing we know for sure is that it involves an alien ... seemingly within some sort of Area 51-like milieu.
Even the exact spot within the building where the shoot is taking place has us wondering whether it’s behind some secret hidden door as we navigate long, winding hallways devoid of any activity ... until we hear the distinct sound of sexual grunts and gasps wafting toward us from up ahead, and we soon turn a corner to see three-time AVN Male Performer of the Year Mick Blue plowing away from behind at four-time AVN MILF Performer of the Year Cherie DeVille up against the nearest wall.
The two, we later learn, are playing lead characters Dr. Allie Sharpe and Dr. John Harding, former lovers who have just come face-to-face unexpectedly at a military facility as recruited members of a specially assembled research team. Greenwood is watching their spontaneous bone session unfold from behind a bank of monitors set up in a darkened room just off the hallway where the pair of industry titans are surrounded by a battery of likewise venerable craftspeople—including cinematographer Matt Holder and lighting technician Shaun Rivera, both 2024 AVN Hall of Fame inductees.
Observing a nice beam of lens flare in a low shot on one of the monitors, Greenwood whispers with a grin to the crew member beside him: “My J.J. Abrams moment is coming.”
After the frenzied bonk between Blue and DeVille wraps up, we have a few moments to prod Greenwood for a handful of additional details about this Project.
“Digital Playground asked me if I wanted to do a sci-fi movie, so I said yeah, I never did a sci-fi film really,” he tells us. “When they told me that, I was expecting like a Star Trek with a spaceship and everything. And when I read the script, I realized that it was more a down-to-earth type of sci-fi, it’s on a military base. I had to build a spaceship, but not completely.”
ON THE SET | 9.24 | AVN.COM 31