A Good Month For Dan Klores

For the publicity guru-turned-documentary filmmaker Dan Klores, September has been an especially good month so far. Last Thursday, September 8, he learned not only that his screenplay “Dance to the Music” had been greenlit by a studio, but that he will also get to direct the feature film. Additionally, his new play, “The Wood,” opens at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in Manhattan on Thursday, September 15.

It isn’t a surprise that a venture by Mr. Klores, who, with his wife, Abbe, and three sons lives part-time in Sag Harbor, would garner attention, though it is unexpected that “The Wood,” a play about the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Mike McAlary, was written for the stage instead of being made into a documentary. “I’ve done six documentaries in eight years, and frankly I’m tired of them,” Mr. Klores explained during a recent interview. “Actually, it never occurred to me to tell this story as a film. Not even close. From the beginning, I saw it as a work for the stage.”

If Mr. Klores continues to direct his energies toward theater, it could become yet another successful act in his prolific and varied career, which has included public relations, television commentating, lecturing, authoring and editing books (“Roundball Culture”), newspaper and magazine pieces, creating documentaries, and producing plays (“The Capeman”) and movies (“City by the Sea”).

After the Brooklyn-born former PR man attended the University of South Carolina, he worked a variety of jobs until he landed at Howard Rubenstein Public Relations. Despite an inauspicious beginning as a publicist (his first client was a store that sold shoe inserts), Mr. Klores found he had a knack for the flack business. In 1991, he struck out on his own, founding Dan Klores Communications. It became a highly sought-after shop. Clients have included Jennifer Lopez, Howard Stern, Sean Combs (through his several name changes), Delta, Showtime and the National Basketball Association.

One of his specialties was damage control, being the go-to guy when a celebrity got in trouble. Readers might remember the 2001 car crash outside a Southampton nightclub involving Lizzie Grubman—she immediately sent out an SOS to Mr. Klores. Today, Mr. Klores remains the chairman of his public relations company but no longer has a hand in the day-to-day running of it so that he can devote his time to creative projects.

Having the NBA as a client was especially helpful because it was his love for basketball, combined with a diagnosis of hepatitis C that he attributes to early years of drug abuse, that turned Mr. Klores toward filmmaking, he said. His first documentary effort, 2003’s “The Boys of 2nd Street Park,” was about growing up in Brighton Beach and playing pickup basketball games with his friends.

After that, Mr. Klores embarked on a series of documentary films, including “Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks.” and “Crazy Love,” which told the story of Burt Pugach—an attorney who blinded his estranged lover, Linda Eleanor Riss by throwing lye in her face, served 14 years in prison for the crime, then married her after his release.

Mr. Klores had known Mr. McAlary, the subject of “The Wood,” for years. In fact, “City by the Sea,” a movie starring Robert DeNiro and which Mr. Klores executive produced, was based on a story by Mr. McAlary.

“I knew Mike really well, which presents issues in trying to tell his story,” Mr. Klores said. “I loved him, but I had to have some distance while writing, so I chose to take some creative license. There are combinations of different characters except for his wife, Alice.”

Mr. Klores said that he searched to find the right project to portray the former New York Daily News police beat reporter. He was not the only one.

Nora Ephron, also an East End resident, was quoted in a 2003 interview saying she wanted to make a film about Mr. McAlary. That film never came to fruition, but in June 2010, Mike Nichols directed a staged reading of Ms. Ephron’s “Stories About McAlary,” with Hugh Jackman reading the title role.

Why is Mr. McAlary such an intriguing subject? Even friends concede that he could be abrasive, rude and relentless. But those traits also helped him become a top-notch reporter and columnist, rising to the top of the heap and following in the footsteps of his idols, Jimmy Breslin, Murray Kempton and Pete Hamill. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for his reporting on the Abner Louima case. The following year, on Christmas Day, he died of cancer at the age of 41. At the time of his death, the McAlarys were living in Bellport.

“The Wood,” which is newspaper slang for a headline, portrays the reporter’s tenacity, including skipping a chemotherapy appointment to follow a hot tip. The play is also a vehicle for Mr. Klores to explore issues in journalism and, perhaps, lament some of its changes.

“I think of the tabloid news columnists, Mike was the last of his breed,” he said. “There are a number of people who can still do that well, but most are not doing it anymore. Mike really worked the beat and the streets and his sources, like what made Breslin so great. But the days of Breslin, Hamill, Kempton and Mike Royko of Chicago are over.”

Once his current projects are off his plate, Mr. Klores said he is set to return to documentary filmmaking. It won’t be a big departure from his play, though, because the next project portrays the journalism legend Jimmy Breslin.

“I’m committed to do that, and I’ll follow through,” he said. “I’m excited about it. I’m excited about casting the feature. And I have a play opening. Obviously, this is an exciting time for me.”