Dan Ice, the chief operating officer at Jill Kelly Productions, told AVN.com Tuesday the company’s immediate plans are to move forward with sales and distribution in spite of the recent changes in management.
Ice is running the day-to-day operations after former CEO Bob Friedland resigned, and former President Jill Kelly left the organization.
“Our short-term plan is to continue to sell and distribute our product,” Ice said. “In the medium term we want to start to shoot some feature movies with new and up-and-coming and exciting talent. And we are looking to not only distribute these movies in DVD form, but we are also looking for broadcast, cable deals and licensing deals in foreign countries. We still plan to have a flagship Jill Kelly line, but we want to expand our lines, and enter into partnerships with several people.”
Ice continued, “I think there is a lot of interesting, cutting edge things we can do out there. We’re going to have our ear a lot closer to the ground than in the past. We’re going to know what the customer wants and what’s selling and that’s what we’re going to give the customer. And we’re going to do that with exciting talent, with quality movies and good graphics, good editing and good photography.”
Ice said the company has not shot anything new in some time, but “we had a lot of material in the can so to speak. We have a backlog of fresh material. We plan to shoot in July.”
Ice, who is from Missouri, said he first became involved with JKP as an investor.
“I invested in the company in its public offering 18 to 20 months ago,” he said. “I thought it was a great company with a great future. Subsequent to that investment, Bob asked me to join the board of directors. He put together an outside body to guide the company. I accepted. After that, last fall he asked me to come on board on a full-time basis to help him manage the company and steer the company. Since that time, we’ve lost some people and I am now running the company as chief operating officer.”
Ice suggested that Friedland’s health contributed to his decision to leave. Friedland has not been available for comment since his departure.
“I think Bob’s health had a lot to do with it,” Ice said. “I think the pressures of being responsible for a company like this certainly were not good for his health under the circumstances. … He just decided he didn’t want to do it anymore.”
He said that Friedland already had given him a lot of say in the business before his exit.
“I was appointed by the Board prior to Bob’s resignation,” he said. “I think Bob gave me a lot of discretion in the day-to-day operation. Bob hasn’t come into the office on a daily basis for a long time. He has an office in his house. I was here on site running the company, so now I’m making any of the decisions Bob would’ve made and I’ve been making the same decisions for a long time.
“I think that Bob saw his role in the company as a chief executive officer to guide the company into the future and really not get involved in the day-to-day.”
Ice said he had not spoken to Friedland in several days and confirmed that his whereabouts are unclear.
In terms of Jill Kelly’s departure, Ice said, “I would leave that to Bob and Jill to comment on.”
“Jill as president reported to Bob,” he said. “What went on between Jill and Bob, I was not involved in any of those discussions.”
Kelly told AVN.com she plans to make a statement about her leaving in the near future.
JKP’s popular, three-year contract star, Jenna Haze, also recently left the company.
“I think the world of Jenna,” Ice said. “I think she did a wonderful job. Her contract had expired {in April}. It was my understanding that she wants to stay with Jill in whatever endeavors she may undertake. They have a close relationship, and I believe she feels part of Jill’s family. We would’ve been happy to re-sign Jenna. I think she wanted to do some other things.”
Ice addressed the stock value of Jill Kelly Productions Holdings, Inc. (JKXJ), which this afternoon was trading at $0.06 per share, a dramatic decrease from seven weeks ago when it was trading at upwards of $0.45 per share.
“Due to the size of the float, I think the intrinsic value of the stock is not directly tied to what’s taking place in the market,” Ice said.
In terms of keeping the Jill Kelly Productions name even though Kelly isn’t there, Ice said, “I don't think we’ve actually decided on that.”
“We’re keeping all options open,” he said. “We’ll make our plans known as they firm up. … We want to give our customers a product that they really enjoy. We have a very knowledgeable, creative staff here. We have the ability in-house to put out some really good products and we are also looking for partnerships in the industry to help us grow.”
