 He first became involved in film distribution working for Headliner Productions on the re-release of films by director Edward D. Wood, Jr.He founded Phaedra Cinema to distribute international films in the U.S. With a specialization in cult films, Phaedra released such films as Toshimichi Ohkawa's "Nobody", Cha Chuen Lee's "Triad Story" and Jimmy Wang Yu's "Master of the Flying Guillotine" (1975) and Toshiharu Ikeda's "Evil Dead Trap".On his interest in Asian cult cinema, Hatanaka said, "I grew up going to the drive-ins, watching Sonny Chiba movies-- I've always had a passion for that."