The multi-week digital project “xXPonyBoyDerekXx” will be available on X and OnlyFans starting Monday, executive producer John Cameron Mitchell announced on Instagram.
Described as a “boundary-breaking digital play,” the drama will combine theater, film and mixed digital media to tell the story of an 18-year-old OnlyFans creator entirely through OnlyFans and X posts. To watch the story play out, viewers will need to subscribe to xXPonyBoyDerekXx’s OnlyFans account.
Mitchell and Arterial Projects‘ project is written by Gage Tarlton, who co-directed the project with Carlos Cardona.
“Gage Tarlton hacks the commercial source code of the OnlyFans hi-tech strip club to craft a totally new kind of humane storytelling,” Mitchell told Deadline. “It flips the camera back onto the viewer to force them to experience the actual humanity behind digital sex work. Finally! Young intelligent filmmakers and theater-makers subvert the Porn Industrial Complex for the purpose of empathy!”
According to producers, the titular xXPonyBoyDerekXx character will be played by “an up-and-coming viral internet star.” Their identity will not revealed until the final scenes. OnlyFans personality and community advocate Boomer Banks will co-star as “Aaron Channing.”
“xXPonyBoyDerekXx” will include scenic design by Ana Novačić, costume design by Catharina Schürenberg, art direction by Sydney Buchan and original music by Daniel Schlossberg. Brayden Simpson is the line producer and Brian Sabowski is the unit production manager. The intimacy team is made up of intimacy consultant Teniece Divya Johnson and intimacy coordinator Marcus Watson.
Best known for writing and starring in the rock musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” Mitchell has several stage and TV credits, in addition to writing and directing the films “Shortbus,” “Rabbit Hole” and “How to Talk to Girls at Parties.” Cardona’s work includes feature films “Second Chance” and “Scenes from a Breakup.” Tarlton was a 2019 Kennedy Center Playwriting Fellow, a 2023 finalist and 2020 semifinalist for The O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference.
This story was first reported by Deadline.