CHATSWORTH, Calif. – Actor-director Manuel Ferrara has left Red Light District after two years and moved over to Evil Angel, which will distribute his Manuel Ferrara Productions.
Ferrara, AVN’s Male Performer of the Year for two years running, will stay at Red Light through the end of March, long enough to fulfill his commitments to the company. His first Evil Angel release is tentatively scheduled for May.
Red Light owner David Joseph and Evil Angel vice president of operations, Chris Norman, speaking to AVN.com on a conference call, were effusive in their praise for Ferrara and full of mutual admiration, asserting that there were no hard feelings between the two companies.
“This was entirely mutual,” Joseph said of Ferrara’s departure. “Everything is good between us. I’m really happy for Manuel. He’s the nicest guy in the world.
“He’s been on the fence about this for several weeks. He likes it here but I know that he has looked up to John Stagliano his whole life and that’s the team he wants to play with.”
Norman said he wanted to make it clear that “there is no hostility between Evil Angel and Red Light District. Despite what you may hear, Evil Angel is not out to raid their directors.” He added that Stagliano has traditionally waited for a director to make a name for himself before inviting him to join the Evil Empire.
“We’re delighted to have Manuel at Evil Angel,” he continued. “He really came up through the ranks, working for Christoph Clark and Rocco Siffredi [other Evil Angel directors]. We think this is the perfect home for him.”
Ferrara joins his former Red Light labelmate Erik Everhard at Evil Angel, but under much sunnier skies than Everhard, who is suing and being counter-sued by Red Light.
“I feel good,” the French-born Ferrara told AVN.com. “I have a lot of friends at Red Light District and everything is going well. But now I have a chance to go where I probably wanted to be always.”
He said he’ll be shooting “what I love, gonzo, with intros [to the sex] that are a little bit more involved, like what I did in my series Mind Fuck, where the perversion of the situation will turn you on as much as the sex.”
Despite being part of the Evil Empire he said he’ll be “performing again for everybody,” including his friends at Red Light such as Michael Stefano. The working title for his first Evil Angel release, he added, is Evilution.