YouTube-Previewed Film “I’m Your Man” Sued by Director Before Release as Truth Battle Over Leaked Footage Erupts on YouTube

A legal fight instead of the screen: ‘I’m Your Man’ … a meltdown sparked by a battle over editing rights

Ahead of its release, the independent film ‘I’m Your Man’ is at risk of meeting audiences first in a courtroom rather than on screens. The dispute between the production company and the director over who would lead the post-production process and the leak of an edited rough cut has spiraled into an irreparable, muddy lawsuit.

According to the film industry on the 10th, the production company ‘Bae Cine Production’ filed a sudden police complaint accusing director ‘Shin Jae-ho’ of obstruction of business and breach of trust. The flashpoint is the unauthorized release of an edited rough cut on ‘YouTube’. The company claims the director’s arbitrary posting of the video dealt a fatal blow to its plans to submit the film to the ‘Busan International Film Festival’.

‘Bae So-hyun’, the CEO of Bae Cine Production, said, “A work revealed in advance loses the qualification to be submitted to a festival, and even after selection, cancellation is the principle.” She appealed for relief, citing massive material and mental damages. She also strongly rebutted the controversy over the removal of the director’s credit (cast and crew list) and the director’s surrender of equity, saying, “We transferred ‘editing rights’ by mutual agreement, and the director voluntarily stepped down.”

But the position of director Shin Jae-ho sharply diverges. He says that during the post-production process, he — the directing artist — was thoroughly ‘passed over’, and that an independent edit was forced through. Regarding the release of the disputed rough cut, he argues it was not a mere leak but a rightful ‘exercise of rights’ as a co-investor and director.

Shin said, “When I protested the exclusion notice and said I would step down, what I got back was a notice to delete my credit and to confiscate my ‘investment stake’. Leaving the job shouldn’t erase even the achievements I built up so far — that’s absurd,” he said, expressing his sense of grievance.

Comedy film ‘I’m Your Man’, starring ‘Lee Ji-hoon’, ‘Moon Hee-kyung’, and ‘Kim Ki-bang’, received support funding from the ‘Busan Film Commission’ and also had the director put in personal funds. Production wrapped with a crank-in last fall. The YouTube video that had been at the center of the controversy has been deleted, but with the sides’ positions so firmly set, legal wrangling is expected to drag on.