Dancing Ninja

Originally announced as a sequel to Beverly Hills Ninja (1997).

When principal photography began, it became apparent that Mitch Klebanoff lacked real experience directing. His erratic last minute script re-writes and his refusal to stay within budget and on schedule were sending the production phase of the film awry, and in fact, the production activities that took place under Klebanoff's direction were a disaster. For example, Klebanoff, who was still making changes to the script when filming began, was unable to shoot more than approximately one page per day. This resulted in an enormous waste of time and money. Further, he had ordered expensive structures to be built for sets that he ended up not using at the last minute, disorganized revisions.

Following Mitch Klebanoff's termination, the producers were forced to hire another director, Kelly Sandefur, at very short notice. Due to the exigent circumstances and their swift decision, the producer's choice of director was not approved by Sony. For this reason, Sony rescinded their offer to provide $500,000 of investment and informed producer Jungho Han that they would not distribute the picture. The true extent of Mr. Klebanof's incompetence, gross negligence and inability to perform his job requirements as a director became apparent once the new director began her filming of the picture. Not only was she able to complete the movie within the budget allocated, but, she completed approximately 80% of the script in 16 days. This included a significant number of scenes that had to be re-shot and scenes that were meant to be shot in Korea. By contrast, Klebanoff had only been able to shoot approximately 20% of the script in the 15 days he spent filming in Korea, and of that only around 20 minutes were usable. Mr. Klebanoff's negligence had cost the producers many hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages including the loss of a $500,000 investment and distribution agreement with Sony, the cost associated with hiring a new director, the millions of dollars wasted during the initial filming in Korea and the building of structures for filming that were never used.

During pre-production, Klebanoff repeatedly came to one of the producers with requests to increase the budget, rather than focusing on confirming locations, casting, issuing instructions to hair, make-up and wardrobe and discussing logistics with them. The only reason he was asking to increase the budget at this precise time was to increase his own compensation which was, in part, tied to the budget. Also, during this time, he made a substantial number of erratic, last minute revisions to the script, without any discussion with the producers. This prevented the rest of the production team, cast and crew from cost effectively carrying out their responsibilities in making the picture. Typically the script is not substantially revised during the pre-production phase because the producers need to work quickly to secure the necessary locations and make arrangements for confirming and preparing the actors for filming. As the script kept changing, the producers were unable to act in a cost effective manner. This resulted in disorganization, confusion and wasted time and funds.

During the week preceding the start of scheduled filming in Canada, a major point of contention between the producers and Mitch Klebanoff was his insistence that Judy Kang appear topless or nude. Specifically, Klebanoff insisted that Kang should be seen getting in and out of a bath naked and would be seen naked during a love making scene. This presented a very significant problem because Sony had insisted the picture be appropriate for a "PG" or, at most, a "PG-13 rating. Further, the terms of Kang's contact provided that she would not appear nude. In an attempt to get his own way and to avenge Kang and the producers refusal to accommodate these love scenes, Klebanoff did the following: First, Klebanoff wrote Kang out of entire portions of the script and significantly reduced her character's presence in the picture. Second, Klebanoff, without informing any of the picture's producers, secretly auditioned and hired, without a written contract, a new actress, Elise Estrada, to sing in the movie and provide more sexual content. Kang sent a mass email to the producers about her discomfort with Klebanoff. There was a big meeting between Sony, Klebanoff and the producers. The first day of filming in Canada began with a fight in Kang's trailer whereby Mr. Klebanoff would not back down and insisted that Kang's few remaining scenes should be shot with full nudity and sexual content that would nor qualify for a "PG" or "PG-13" rating. Klebanoff berated and belittled Kang who was just minutes away from walking onto set and performing. Understandably, Kang was very distracted by the fight and could not perform property. These scenes had to be re-shot on a later date. During a lunch meeting with members of the production crew and Kang, Klebanoff screamed and ranted, exclaiming that he had "25 years of experience" and that the nude scenes would he shot, regardless of the objections.