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Mr. Haber Goes to Hollywood
Jason Haber has only taken one creative writing class in his life. But that did not stop the 29-year-old former Assembly staffer from writing a screenplay which is now being pitched to filmmakers by a professional Hollywood agency.
What he is going for is a sort of political “Wedding Crashers” – a buddy romantic comedy aimed at the male 18-35 demographic that takes place at a national political convention.
Though Haber, who himself ran for City Council on Manhattan's West Side against Gale Brewer (D) in 2001, insists that the script is not autobiographical, he does admit drawing on his own experiences in writing it.
“It's exaggerated and it's also skewed for the genre of film, because it's a buddy picture slash romantic comedy. It's not a true-to-life docu-drama,” Haber said. “I have to experience it to write it, but then when I write it I completely change the experience inside and out.”
During the last, slow weeks of August 2004 after the Democratic National Convention, Haber began working on “A More Perfect Union” in which Jimmy Klein, a recently fired attorney, tags along with his best friend, Kevin Grant, a Congressional staffer. Jimmy meets a pretty girl who mistakes him for Kevin's boss, Congressman James Klein, and plays along to get the girl.
Between scenes set at nightclubs and breakfasts with national interest groups, the script depicts a glamorous and idealistic political world. Haber says the screenplay is true to the excitement of a national convention.
“People who work for elected officials are so dedicated and they work so hard, but they don't do it for the glamour. The convention is sort of the one time where everyone gets to have fun,” he said. “Whether you are a junior staffer for an Assemblyman or a senior staffer for the president of the United States, everyone gets to be there at the same party, which I think is fun.”
Though Haber wrote his first draft in just a few weeks, getting it into the hands of a Hollywood talent agent took much longer.
He had mailed around copies of the script, and had even dressed up as a messenger many times to deliver copies of it to hotels where movie stars were doing press junkets.
But he got no bites.
Then this past February, opportunity unexpectedly arrived.
Haber had been then-Assembly Member Scott Stringer's (D) director of constituent relations. When Stringer became the new Manhattan borough president Jan. 1, Haber was left alone to run the district office until the new Assembly member took office.
“I'm sitting in the office one day, and there's a knock on the door, and this knock was my big break,” Haber said. “This guy walks in and just says, ‘Would you be interested in having this location used to shoot a scene in a movie?'”
In exchange for a donation to Public School District 3 and a complete remodeling of the district office, Haber agreed to let filmmakers use the space for an employment office scene in “A Night at the Museum,” a Ben Stiller comedy due out Dec. 22.
One day during shooting, Haber had lunch with the movie's director, Shawn Levy. The conversation turned to “A More Perfect Union.” Levy agreed to read the script, and advised Haber on the details of how to pitch it.
He began talking with Hollywood agent Carl Sanger, and someone was hired to do script revisions, which Haber said were thorough. When these were done in late July, Sanger agreed to sign him, and is now actively marketing the screenplay.
“We've already had interest from several studios who've requested it,” Haber said. “If it gets optioned in 2006, it could get developed in 2007, shot in 2007. Ideally it comes out the week before or the week after the [2008] Democratic Convention.”
Haber is currently working as a real estate agent and has just finished a draft of a new screenplay, a romantic comedy called “Fake Wedding.” He passed on a run to succeed Stringer in the February special election, but says he is still considering getting back into politics.
He says he has not thought about the script's impact on his future prospects.
“The only way it could hurt me is if it's a huge flop and everyone blames the writer. In politics you never want to look like you have egg on your face, so you wouldn't want that,” he said. “But that's a chance I'm more than willing to take.”