Joe Francis‘ infamous “Girls Gone Wild” video company is getting the documentary treatment.
In the first installment of TNT’s new true-crime anthology series, “Rich & Shameless,” viewers will get an inside look into the dirty world of the entrepreneur’s adult entertainment business that dominated the 2000s.
“Girls Gone Wild Exposed” will premiere on April 23 with a special two-hour episode following the NBA playoffs.
A hefty, nearly 3-minute-long trailer dropped on Tuesday with many flashes of early 2000s nostalgia — and heartache.
According to a press release, the episode will dive deep into the “harmless fun” of wet T-shirt contests and booze-fueled spring breaks and move into “dark back rooms with Francis,” where girls were reportedly “coerced to take part in actions far more sinister than flashing on a beach.”
Francis, 48, was once a permanent figure in Tinseltown and was pals with everyone from reality TV royalty to A-list celebs.
The “Banned From Television” producer was “at the center of this roving party,” interviewees claimed. “Joe Francis was the aspirational millennial figure. He had a private jet and famous friends. He was a rock star.”
“In the early 2000s, pop culture was sexy and colorful,” TV personality Brooke Burke proclaimed in the clip. “It was the rise of the reality television star. Being wild and free was celebrated.”
But the experience wasn’t always sun-drenched. The 2-hour episode will showcase first-person accounts and interviews with women who claim their lives were left in ruins after being on “Girls Gone Wild.”
“There was clearly a darker side to the ‘Girls Gone Wild’ empire,” chimed in one person during the crazy teaser. “People were totally unaware of what this guy was up to.”
An audio recording of a verbal fight reportedly between Francis and his estranged wife will be featured alongside these women’s stories. Francis has faced a downward spiral in the last few years after he was arrested in 2020 for domestic violence.
“If ‘Girls Gone Wild’ showed up, it was like gasoline on a fire,” one interviewee chimed in. “Every hot chick in the place wanted to be on camera. The soft-core DVDs … it was a cultural phenomenon.”
However, it wasn’t all brightly colored bikinis and fun nights for some participants.
“It was the worst night of my life,” one young woman lamented. “I was tricked into a child pornography film,” another sobbed in the teaser video.
Francis was also previously arrested and charged with three counts of false imprisonment, one count of assault causing great bodily injury and one count of dissuading a witness following an incident back in 2011.