The idea for the film came from the title first, which was written on a piece of scrap paper by writer/director Jason Dale. "Fight the Panda Syndicate" was scribbled in pencil one Tuesday evening in 2006 at the home of co-writer/producer/actor Christopher Pickhardt who then said upon seeing it: "that sounds like a movie title." This prompted the fateful follow-up by Dale: "well, let's see what kind of movie would this be." And from there, it all began...
Fight the Panda Syndicate was an ambitious grassroots production that took close to 7 years to fully complete and which instituted the talents of over 500 people from over 7 U.S. states (including 30+ graduates from Indian Hills High School in Oakland, NJ) and the brilliant composer Glen Gabriel from Sweden who was discovered via Myspace in 2006.
The silver hair of likable villain Renard (played by Christopher Pickhardt) was partly inspired by the hairstyles of Rammstein front-man Till Lindemann.
The main creative voices behind Fight the Panda Syndicate - Jason Dale and Christopher Pickhardt, spent thousands and thousands of hours over 6+ years discussing the film, its progress, solving its production problems and crafting it in the editing room. A good number of these conversations took place over late-night strategy sessions in Dale's loyal and beat-up Toyota Corolla.
Actors Andrea Prendamano, Luis Scarpati and Yelena Sabel all attended classes with Christopher Pickhardt at The New Jersey School of Dramatic Arts in Bloomfield, NJ...Actors Jason Woolbert, Gaurav Gangoli and Avi Berman all attended Lafayette College with director Jason Dale.