VIXEN HIGHWAY ____ PROINHIBITION _____ MADE IN BERLIN

In 2001, just days after September 11, the first public screening of “Vixen Highway”, a tribute to

sexploitation maestro Russ Meyer written, produced and directed by yours truly, Film Fanatic At Large

John Ervin, was held at the Cinema Wasteland Expo of Columbus, Ohio. Due to the complete shutdown

of airports at the time, I was not able to attend that screening of this dark action sex comedy, which deals

with three foxy female croupiers who use their sex and strength to beat a string of lecherous men in

driving an illegal donor liver to the house of ailing rock star, Bobby Barzel (and which is available on DVD at

www.indieflix.com and www.imoovie.com). Nor was I able to attend an even bigger screening of

“Vixen Highway” held at Toronto’s Twisted Sinema

Showcase the following June, where I won the Best

International Director Award. The reason for missing

out on this extravaganza was far less honorable, though

still applicable - I had just blown what little travel money

I had for the year on a trip to New York to attend the

opening of the Russ Meyer Photography Exhibit in New

York City. The fact that the opening was delayed at

the last minute till the week following my visit only

made that trip, to a city I often visit, truly pointless

(though the show’s curator, Lance Kinz, did, at my

request, pass on a copy of “Vixen Highway” to the

still-living if Alzheimer-addled Russ Meyer). And my MIA

status at the Twisted Sinema Expo the following month

was, as a result, truly outrageous. After all, the curator

of Twisted Sinema, Canadian exploitation film impresario

Tony Watt, would help breath new life into the “Vixen

Highway” franchise and the cinema of Meyer, by

launching a follow-up three years later.

That film, “Vixen Highway 2006 ", about

a sexy Eurasian female cop from New York

who investigates demonic and supernatural

activity in present-day Minnesota, wrapped

shooting in October, 2005 in Toronto, Ontario,

under the direction of Mr. Watt, and is slated

for release sometime in the year 2006. Just as

Meyer’s most celebrated film, “Beyond the

Valley of the Dolls” was not so much a sequel

to the 1967 film based on Jacqueline Susann’s

trash classic, “Valley of the Dolls”, as a

rethinking of said classic with a new cast of

femme fatales dealing with the trials, tribulations

- and pills - of show business, so too Tony Watt’s

“Vixen Highway” is not a continuation so much

as a reconfiguration of my 2001 trash classic.

Unlike Ms. Susann, though, I do not plan to

hound the story's creators with lawsuits anytime in the near future. After all, seeing as I am co-producer of the new film, and collaborated with Tony on the new script, I would only be suing myself!

Among other changes from the original “Vixen Highway” are the main characters, only one of whom, Bobby Barzel, despite suffering cirrhosis of the liver for the past six years, has somehow survived to grace "VH06." Played in the first film by Minnesota theater veteran, Stephen D’Ambrose the role is now being essayed by Canadian stoner-poet-minstrel, James Taggart. Taggart shares screen time with himself as Taggart the Assasin, Sheriff Buford T. Bullnutz (Gleason's turning) and geekboy: Bernie Lipschitz.

Starring as the sexy Eurasian cop Divine is Filipino-born,

Canadian-bred actress Amabelle Singson, who bears

more than a passing resemblance to one of her heroes,

Lucy Liu ... and absolutely no resemblance to the Divine

who graced the early films of John Waters! Playing Ingrid, a nymphomaniac Marine who witnesses an act in the woods of Minnesota that is more unspeakable than

anything she would have experienced in Iraq is Angie

Faulkner, a recent addition to the Tony Watt talent

stable, who looks like Angelina Jolie with the literary

acumen of William Faulkner. Even I, as the only member

of the original "Vixen Highway" cast to appear in the new

film, don't quite repeat my part as lingerie truck driver

Martin Bormann, but instead do a cameo as the much more respectable, if more bald, reporter Niles Fletcher. And rumor has it that fellow Minnesota legend, Mary Tyler Moore - or, rather, her most famous character, Mary Richards - will also throw her hat in the air for the show.

Rounding out the cast of supervixens and megageeks is director Tony Watt, himself, who continues his career as actor, writer, director,

and all-around madman. The "mad" is easy to

see in this "man": in part, because of his credits

as director and producer, which include the recent horror classics "Frankenpimp", "Zombie

Night 2" and "King Kaufman: The Passion of the

Lloyd”; in part, because of his zany cameos in big screen blood fests like Melantha Blackthorne’s

“Sinners and Saints” where he played a dancing, Cockney-accented milkman; and, especially, because

of his antics off-camera and behind the wheel. These last include having his car stolen by two hitchhikers

as he made a pit stop at a convenience store, only to find it abandoned several days later with the seats covered in dog feces, and racing about the set of “Vixen Highway 2006” with a diaper recently soiled by one of the cast member’s toddlers, threatening to “bless” key cast and crew people with it.

Despite his penchant for fecal matter, Tony is a serious

cinematic archeologist with an appreciation for

horror, comedy and dramatic works from the first

silent gurglings of the beginning of the last century,

to the THX-slathered death games of this century. He

has helped many an obscure and classic gem

from all eras and genres of movie history, not

to mention the works of struggling indie

filmmakers like myself, get exposure through

the Twisted Sinema Film Festival, which he

has run for the past several years in Toronto with

"Frankenpimp" co-star, producer Martin Magee, who

also appears in "Vixen Highway 2006." Tony's

passion for films of all kinds - be it a jewel of 1920's

expressionism like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", or a

forgotten nugget like “Cocaine: One Man’s Seduction” a 1982 TV movie featuring the late Dennis

"McCloud" Weaver as a cokehead real-estate agent (pardon the redundancy) - is, in fact, virulent enough to potentially scare people. The fact that he sports sideburns that would do The King proud and talks and acts as if he, himself, regularly snorts several condoms’ worth of Columbian gold doesn’t lessen the impact.

This was certainly the case for leading lady Amabelle, who was so scared of the Type-A Titan during her audition that she was ready to bolt out of the studio. But, in time, like myself and others fortunate to be showered by the cinematic sweat Watt frequently sprays, she was won over by his charm and dedication. The same goes for co-star Vivita, who portrays the dual roles of Miss Illham Khobasha and a character described only as a "horny cop" (pardon the redundancy). As for Watt, he kills the cast as Osiris the Deathdealer, Rasta Raggamuffin, Don Bologne, Deputy Richard Crosby and Chadwick AND Neil Van Helsing!

Angie Faulkner, for her part, is grateful to Tony for helping her get promotion and exposure as a fledgling star, even after having to wear a fake eye dripping with equally inedible puss for her appearance in "Zombie Night 2" in which Watt appeared as Jay, the Zombie Cowboy Killer. As for myself, I am so pleased by the commitment and courage that this movie maestro has exhibited in the years I’ve known him that I didn’t even consider anyone else to helm my next script, the avant-garde action adventure yarn, "The Mullet Man."

That film, which stars Vivita, above, as steamy one-eyed Detective Lena Lovelace, and which is soon slated for shooting by Watt and company, should prove to be just as groundbreaking and thought provoking. Check with Tony's site for updates on  that production, which I have no plans to appear in either. But if I do and if I find myself wearing gobs of makeup, tasty or not, while wearing high heels, I may be less enthusiastic. The

future production, of course, should in no way diminish the impact that “Vixen Highway 2006 ” will have on fans of horror, sexploitation, blaxploitation and even Nora Ephron movies. Devotees of Russ Meyer will get off on the embarassment of temptresses, not to mention the all-star headbangin' party featured in

the film, reminiscent of the drug-sex-and-Strawberry-Alarm-Clock orgies hosted by Bobby Barzel's long-

lost brother Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzel (yes, that's

right, the cantankerous pop star and the omnisexual rock tycoon were brothers, raised in a Brooklyn, New York tenement by their Old World Jewish parents). Fans of the groundbreaking slash-cinema of Hooper, Craven and Romero will get off their own way on those same supervixens getting gouged, ripped apart or wallowing in blood and feces, while wearing

the hottest foot wear. And for those who get

excited by cameos by disturbed independent filmmakers ... well, they will definitely not be disappointed.

In any case, no sex-crazed, blood-freak exploitation-fan will have any reason to miss out on this, a cross- border international production that will at long last bring peace to the warring nations of Canada and the United States.

And if I fail to make this film's premiere, you can blame it all on George W. Bush!

"VIXEN HIGHWAY 2006" COMING SOON TO DVD

AND TO THEATERS AND FESTIVALS WORLDWIDE!

CHECK WITH TONY WATT FOR UPDATES!