On the phone with XBIZ, Ben Rush waxes rhapsodic about the classic Falcon Studios features that gave rise to the irresistible “California blonde” imagery that defined the venerable studio throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He and XBIZ Award-winning helmer Tony Dimarco recently teamed up to put their own twist on that hit-making formula, with the release of new feature “Falcon’s Endless Summer.”
“Many times, the guys in those classic movies weren’t even all blonde, but it was that dreamy, idyllic image and everything it conveyed that really stuck with people,” says Rush, who penned the script for “Endless Summer” and serves as vice president of creative content development and entertainment marketing for the company.
What we’re doing now is really clicking … Falcon is taking these images and concepts you think you already know and putting a funny or unexpected twist on them.
The feature is at the center of a new seasonal marketing campaign, a concept that originated with Dimarco.
“He had the idea to do a throwback to the beach and surf movies of the ’60s and ’70s, both in the mainstream popular culture and in porn, but a more modernized contemporary take on it,” Rush explains. “He wanted to go back to the roots of what people know about Falcon: that sun-soaked California beach boy image.”
Rush describes “Endless Summer” as an ensemble piece that revolves around Alpha Wolfe, who is struggling to keep his small surf shop afloat when he lands a second chance at romance after crossing paths with a former love, played by Ashley Stones.
“Everyone likes a good, uncomplicated all-sex movie,” he continues. “But it’s a nice challenge to explore an actual emotional relationship where the sex supports the romance.”
Rush wrote Wolfe’s role expressly for him, and notes that the chemistry between Wolfe and Stones was the real deal.
“They definitely hit it off,” he recalls with a chuckle. “There was a fiery attraction between them. You always hope that will happen, but you can’t bank on it. We could all feel it, and it was nice to have that energy between them as they explored this central concept of second chances.”
For his part, Wolfe jumped at the chance to create a fully realized character with a backstory, and one whose interests paralleled his own.
“I’m definitely a surfer,” he tells XBIZ. “All of that action in the movie is authentic. We’re going out tomorrow, in fact, to capture some drone footage of me surfing. But growing up, I always wanted to be an actor. I wanted to do theater, but my dad was a baseball coach and he wasn’t into that for me. So I never got to do any of it. Fast-forward to meeting Ben Rush, and he says he’s writing all these different kinds of scripts for Falcon. I told him, ‘I don’t care what it is. I’m up for anything. Throw ’em my way.’”
The “Endless Summer” shoot, Wolfe notes, included the most B-roll he’s ever shot for an adult feature.
“I was so energized and motivated to do a really good job,” Wolfe says, adding that the role is a stark contrast to his splashy supporting turn in last year’s XBIZ-winning “Ride or Die,” also from Dimarco and Rush.
He appears twice in “Ride or Die,” anchoring both an aggressive duo in a jail shower opposite Drew Valentino, and a stunningly fierce matchup when his character is presented as an offering to a villainous power broker played by Pierce Paris.
Both scenes were “intense, and so much work,” he recalls. “Months later, I had a surreal moment when I was in Chicago for an industry thing and I walked into a bar and looked up on the wall and there I was, onscreen, getting railed by Drew Valentino. It was surreal. ‘Falcon’s Endless Summer’ is very different, and I like that. It’s going to have a lot of really good, in-depth emotional connections that lead into the sex scenes.
“Everything just fell into place with this one,” he adds. “I’m excited to see where this takes me.”
One of the central scenes in “Falcon’s Endless Summer” centers around a fundraiser car wash organized by employees of Wolfe’s surf shop. Cue the spraying hoses and frisky young hotties soaking each other down.
Cast member and studio exclusive Dean Young, whose lean, lickable physique and blond locks embody the classic Falcon archetype, found the sexcapades to be right up his alley.
“I love all-sex movies; that’s my preference,” the young Irish-born stud tells XBIZ. “But it’s fun to be an actor and learn scripts and try something different, give people a different side of myself.”
In “Endless Summer,” Young is among the alluring young bucks soaping up cars when a particularly hunky customer, played by the British performer known as Mr. Deep Voice, catches his eye. A passionate tryst ensues.
Young remains excited by his status as a Falcon exclusive and the opportunity to fly around the world living out his sexual fantasies.
“I definitely knew about Falcon as I was growing up, but I never thought in a million years I’d be in their movies,” he marvels.
Fellow castmates Carter Collins and Oliver Marks also count among the studpups creating that memorable car wash scene. The real-life couple and 2023 XBIZ Creator Awards nominees, together known as SouthwestCollegeBoys, have been creating content and booking studio shoots together for just one year. A friendship with fellow creator Jordan Starr led to an introduction to Tony Dimarco.
“We talked and chatted on the phone about different ideas and what he wanted us to do,” Collins recalls. “He sent us a picture of Matheusz Henk and said, ‘What do you think about this guy?’ He was very attractive and —”
“— and we said, ‘We would absolutely love to work with him,’” interrupts Marks, laughing.
Collins adds, “We talked about a threesome and different positions and tons of fun things. That’s how it all came together for us. It was pretty easy and a lot of fun.”
Marks calls the car wash scene “super-soapy, wet fun.”
“Oh my God, we did so many different takes,” he says. “I think we washed that poor car about 12 times. Four hours straight of washing the same spot, over and over.”
“We had to get the placement of the bubbles just right; Tony made us hand-blow them,” Collins jokes.
The promo campaign for “Falcon’s Endless Summer” — which includes personal appearances by its stars as well as branded sunscreen, lip balm, sunglasses and a tropical-flavored lube from Swiss Navy — incorporates lessons learned from last year’s holiday-themed satire, “Cumming Home for Christmas,” also written by Rush. The marketing efforts for that feature included bespoke merch packaged together in a limited-edition gift box that created an enticing sense of must-have among ardent fans.
“They really liked that collectability,” Rush notes. “Falcon has been a part of their lives for years — literally decades for some of them — and this gave them a chance to feel more connected to the brand and to their favorite exclusives.”
An all-sex quasi-sequel to “Falcon’s Endless Summer” that builds out its themes and overall aesthetic is in the works from Hot House Video. So is a holiday-themed follow-up to “Cumming Home for Christmas,” which sexily spoofed the formulaic holiday movies that clutter up cable channels for weeks at the end of every year.
“We had a lot of social media interest from outside the industry about how easily those two genres — Christmas movies and porn — blended together,” Rush remarks. “Howard Stern had fun with it. And the guys at World of Wonder, who make ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ joked about it on one of their pop culture shows. I could play you a couple of lines from porn, and a couple from one of those Lifetime or Hallmark movies, and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. I mean, other than the grunts and moans.”
He credits Falcon/NakedSword president Tim Valenti for throwing open the doors to any kind of creative idea.
“What we’re doing now is really clicking, and you have to give credit to Tim for that,” Rush continues. “Falcon is taking these images and concepts you think you already know and putting a funny or unexpected twist on them. With the industry changing so rapidly, we have to find ways to make ourselves memorable.”
He is hoping “Falcon’s Endless Summer” will help do just that.
“It’s more than a sex movie,” Rush says. “It’s a whole vibe.”
