Hendrix, who performed in many well-known titles including Falcon’s “Cruisin’ 2: More Men on the Make” and Catalina’s “Object of Desire,” was probably best known for directing HIS Video’s “Powerdriver.”
He was recently spotted at the retirement press conference for legendary gay agent David Forest, who helped launch Hendrix’s career. The director had just arrived from his home in Australia, where he has lived on and off since 2000.
“I left because I wanted to pursue the filmmaking stuff, mainstream stuff,” Hendrix told XBIZ.
“Also, my partner at the time had a stroke – all of his family was in Australia, so I went to Australia and set up shop there and helped him get back on track,” he said. “I actually ended up getting permanent residence. So, I’m between the U.S. and Australia at any given time.”
Hendrix said that he felt that the time was right for a return to the adult industry, after his stints in mainstream, as well as directing several softcore features.
“I took some time off and took some mainstream projects that were available to me. But now it’s a good time to get back to the roots,” he said.
According to the director, his experiences in mainstream have left him with a skill set that allow him to create high production values, on an adult production time table.
“You see a lot of things happening and you think it’s time to come back. You know – the commercial industry, when you’re talking about blockbusters, it takes some time to get that kind of money,” Hendrix said. “But this industry is still the best place to me, because you can generate faster revenue, and these days, you can do that between the DVDs, VOD and all these different things.”
“What I bring to the table now is that I can do these things really quick, but I can still enforce the characterization that I want and get a lot more out of it, in say, a week,” he added. “I know it’s not a three-week shoot or a full-blown production.”
With many changes that have occurred in the adult industry in the last eight years, Hendrix said he is not intimidated by a saturated DVD market or slow sales for hard product. He reminisced about his experiences in the era of big budget gay features.
“When you have a name like I do, it can last forever, as long as you produce the right stuff, and once you do, the product will sell,” Hendrix said. “When you work with really large crews and actors and you’re writing scripts and characters, characterizations. We did all of that – for instance, when we did VCA’s ‘Powerdriver,’ that was around $75,000 and that was back in ’96. That was back in the days when Chi Chi and a lot of us were doing huge productions.”
Hendrix is playing his cards close to his chest concerning his new production. The movie has not been titled yet and, as for cast, he would say only that it would feature never-before-seen faces, as well as several veteran performers. He anticipates a fall release and already feels back at home, shooting the triple-X title.
“I’ve been doing this since 1988, so I’ve been around a few years,” Hendrix said. “To be honest, it’s been like it was yesterday because people pretty much know who I am. We’ve had tremendous interest from distributors. It’s just the right time to come back.”
