According to IMDb, Howie Klausner is a screenwriter and producer who began his career in 2000 with the blockbuster “Space Cowboys,” starring Clint Eastwood. In fact, the box office hit was Klausner’s 13th screenplay after 13 years languishing on the fringes of the industry.
And his proud sister, Lisa Steppan, is perhaps better known in Park City, having lived and raised her children here for the past 23 years.
Not surprisingly, he, along with his sister and family, is a “huge fan” of the Sundance Film Festival and visits Park City often.
Steppan raised her three children in “the ultimate mountain environment,” she says. “The beauty of the fresh mountain air, year-round outdoor physical fitness and family-focused living – there’s nothing like it.”
Klausner added: “I just enjoy the groove and the energy of the city,” Klausner said. “And it’s fantastic how art and nature harmonize so beautifully with each other.”
It all began at the age of ten in Nashville, when his mother took him to see “Doctor Zhivago.”
“My jaw dropped and I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen,” he said. From then on, he acted in plays and commercials and dreamed of Hollywood. After high school, he was accepted into the School of Cinematic Art at USC.
“It was natural for me to be on stage, and I thought I would move from Tennessee to Los Angeles,” he recalled. At first his focus was on acting, but he soon turned to screenwriting.
“I’ve always written, even as a child. I was that silly 11-year-old boy who had a diary next to his bed,” he said. “I understand and enjoy the process of writing and I think I communicate better that way than any other way.”
So for nearly a decade, Klausner wrote “on the off chance,” pitching scripts to producers, studios and executives. Eventually, “Bang” became “an overnight success and lasted for over 13 years” with “Space Cowboys.”
Since then, he has written dozens of screenplays and has also worked as a producer and director. His most recent project is the biopic “Reagan” starring Dennis Quaid.
“This is not a political ad. It is not polarizing and does not favor one side of the aisle or the other,” Klausner explained. “It is about Reagan finding his calling after years of searching. The night Reagan was shot, he realized he was going to defeat communism, which ultimately led to the famous phrase: ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall.'”
Klausner has been working on and revising the script with producers Mark Joseph and John Sullivan and director Sean McNamara since 2010.
“I’ve written more drafts of scripts than I’ve ever written in my life,” he said. “This is an incredible film. It’s an ode to a time when we were more respectful of each other, when we could disagree but still like each other.”
He spent over 2,000 hours watching archived news clips and videos and reading more than 20 historical and biographical books. The team visited and filmed the Reagan Ranch and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
What he enjoyed most about his research was “being able to spend time with some of the people who were in the White House,” he said. “I met people like Dana Rohrabacher, Reagan’s speechwriter, and William Clark, his national security adviser. These are the people who were actually in the room.”
The film will premiere nationwide on August 30th.
His advice for aspiring writers: “Practice your craft and take the time to experience and live life so that you have something to say.”
He and his family moved back to the Nashville area nearly 18 years ago, where he has assisted with and produced many independent films.
When will Klausner come to visit next?
“I’ll be back there in August and in the winter to ski. I love skiing there, it’s just beautiful,” he said. “I can totally understand why Redford chose Park City.”
