James Glickenhaus (born July 24, 1950) is an American filmmaker, financier, and automotive entrepreneur.

[1] He directed, wrote, and produced a number of action films during the 1980s and 1990s, including The Exterminator (1980), The Soldier (1982), Shakedown (1988), and the Jackie Chan vehicle The Protector (1985).

It became a commercial success and Glickenhaus was asked by Avco-Embassy to deliver a more mainstream action film as his next project.

In a 2012 interview, Glickenhaus explained that his film career could have turned out very differently, had he decided to move to Hollywood after the success of The Exterminator:"I was contacted a lot by studios.

And I knew if I really wanted to be a Hollywood director I would have had to move to LA and spend a lot of time socializing to make contacts.

Jackie Chan edited a different version for the Hong Kong and Japanese market.

[9] In an interview from 2012 about his film career, he explained his reasons for retiring from the business: "What happened at the end was that the studios had taken over everything.