Following Avatar's unprecedented gross of over $2.74B USD, much of which was driven by higher-priced 3D ticket sales, many filmmakers trying to make the jump to 3D filming.  Apparently the craze has even tickled the fancy of adult film industry.

Something about the allure of watching a 3D adult feature rubbed top Chinese erotic filmmaker Stephen Shiu the right way.  Much like James Cameron, director of Avatar, Shiu was the owner of an impressive 90s box office record.  Mr. Shiu's film Sex and Zen grossed over $2.6M USD, to become Hong Kong's highest box office grossing adult film of the decade.

And like Mr. Cameron, Mr. Shiu decided to ride on the premise that what worked in 2D would work even better in 3D.  Filming of his new film 3-D Sex & Zen: Extreme Ecstasy is currently wrapping up.

The film, set for release in May, cost $3.2M USD to film.  It is loosely based on the Chinese classic erotic thriller The Carnal Prayer Mat, a 1600s work by Chinese playwright Li Yu.  It stars top Japanese adult actresses Yukiko Suo and Saori Hara.

The Sunday Morning Post describes the film follows a young male protagonist who after being introduced to a land of erotica by a powerful duke, comes to realize his ex-wife is the love of his life. 

Christopher Sun, the film's director, comments, "Somehow when you're doing a 3-D movie you always want to make an impressive image because the viewers ... are going to buy tickets with double or even triple the ticket price to get into a world they've never seen before.  It's not just erotica, they want some 'wow factor!  The sex scenes are explicit and sometimes violent, but the main theme of the story is love."

Mr. Shiu is convinced that audiences will be hard-pressed not to see such a refined adult title.  And the competition for 3D porn isn't exactly stiff yet.  At this point while some are considering a jump to 3D, only two other major parties have announced plans to pay the high costs associated with making a 3D adult film.

U.S.-based Hustler is currently working on a 3D porno based on Avatar (which is somewhat ironic, considering that Avatar itself reportedly has a long and graphic deleted sex scene).  And Italian director Tinto Brass is working on a 3D re-filming of his 1979 erotic film Caligula.