Gamma Entertainment Acquires BurningAngel

MONTREAL – Gamma Entertainment has announced the acquisition BurningAngel Entertainment, including BurningAngel.com and the company’s deep catalog of hardcore content.

In a release announcing the acquisition, Gamma said the company has also made a multi-year producer agreement with the BurningAngel’s founder, adult superstar Joanna Angel, and is now “set to take the top alt-porn brand to the next level of cinematic excellence when the studio formally becomes part of Gamma’s premium network, Adult Time, in February.”

“Burning Angel has been one of Gamma’s trusted partners for over six years, and we are delighted to have them officially join our roster as a Gamma Films Studio,” said Gamma Entertainment President Karl Bernard. “Their brand has always been creative, original and engaged with their fans, values that are completely in line with our vision for Adult Time. I look forward to seeing them continue to thrive, and for all of the new projects we will develop with Joanna in the future.”

Angel said the decision to sign off on Gamma’s acquisition was “a very exciting but emotional one for me.”

“Thinking back to how this all began as a DIY college experiment in my dorm room at Rutgers University in 2002, it feels incredibly surreal to announce this,” Angel said. “BurningAngel and Gamma have been in a website partnership agreement for the past six years, during which Gamma has designed, maintained and optimized BurningAngel.com, so I’ve already had a relationship with their team. This relationship intensified when I came on as a guest director for Pure Taboo, and while it was a project produced by Gamma Films, the cross promotion between the BurningAngel members and the Pure Taboo members proved to be incredibly successful.”

Angel added that later, Gamma Film’s Head Production of Bree Mills approached her to talk about Adult Time and “we discussed the different ways the BurningAngel content could benefit the platform.” “From a creative perspective it was simple, I wanted to be a part of it and she wanted the content to be there,” Angel said. “I half-jokingly said, ‘You know, this would be a lot easier if you just bought the brand!’”

An offer to do just that came in shortly thereafter – and Angel said her emotional first instinct was to to decline.

“BurningAngel is my child, all my blood, sweat and tears and half of my entire lifetime has gone into it,” Angel said. “But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. The thought of being an active part of a bigger platform excited me, and would completely benefit the current BurningAngel members, and grow the brand for new fans and members as well.”

Angel said that when she first started BurningAngel in 2002, “my goal was to show the world that punk rock chicks were hot.”

“I wanted to show the world that sex and sexuality doesn’t have to come from a tan blonde enhanced girl stripping in front of a swimming pool,” she added. “BurningAngel was more of a brand, than it was a production company…. But in the past 10+ years my passion has shifted, and I have really developed a love for production. The quality of the early BurningAngel movies didn’t matter much, the important part was that everyone had tattoos. But over time, my passion for creating porn has really grown.”

Under her new production agreement with Gamma, Angel said she will still be as productive as ever.

“I will still be directing for BurningAngel, and the website will continue to be updated,” Angel said. “The fans will not notice a change and I will continue to deliver them the quirky punk/tattoo/goth content they know and love. I will also be guest-directing other projects for Adult Time that will be announced in the near future.”

Angel added that she also wanted to make it clear the arrangement is “not an exclusive directing or performing contract.”

“I spent a good portion of my adult career tied to one company and I want to branch out in every way possible at this juncture in my career,” Angel said. “I plan to appear in as many films as possible, in front of and behind the camera. I am incredibly excited for this next chapter of my adult career, and BurningAngel’s second life as a company. I graciously thank Gamma for the opportunity.”

Under the new deal, Angel will remain the primary producer of BurningAngel’s content, while working closely with Mills on production. Her personal site, JoannaAngel.com, will “remain an independent property and separate from the Gamma Entertainment agreement,” according to the statement announcing Gamma’s acquisition.

“Joanna and I have already been working closely together on a creative level for the past year, after she joined our team for Trailer Park Taboo, the multi-nominated feature she wrote and directed for Pure Taboo,” Mills said. “That experience led to us talking about other projects and, when I pitched her the idea of Adult Time, it was at the same time she was contemplating where she wanted to focus the next phase of her career. The opportunity for BurningAngel to become part of Gamma made a lot of sense, given where we both want to grow.

“I am thrilled to include BurningAngel as a Gamma Films studio,” Mills added. “It is a brand that I have always admired and I’m excited to see it carry on into its next iteration.”

Mills said she and Angel have already begun production on a new Adult Time original series, Lady Gonzo, directed by Angel, that she is shooting alongside veteran cinematographer Mike Quasar.