LIFE STORY reel ambition How do you go from bridgemaker to filmmaker? Woodcliff Lake native Jon Doscher parlayed his construction gig into a chance to head his own movie company — and it all started with a box of cigars he sent to Jack Nicholson. You’ll never guess what happened next BY JIM WALTZER • PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN BLAISE Some moviemakers are born clutching a Saddle River–based “indie” is courting big May 2000, Doscher’s Restoration Co. camera. But long before founding the names and big dreams. And what’s even had a job at the Saddle River home of independent production company more intriguing is its artistic aim. Current veteran character actor Danny Aiello. Starline Films, Jon Doscher was busy projects include a pair of searing true “So here I am at Danny Aiello’s house as with more ponderous hardware. stories, one an echo of Truman Capote’s a contractor,” says Doscher. “I took a “I was hanging columns, drilling steel, chilling In Cold Blood, the other based on shot — it was totally unplanned.” making good money,” the Woodcliff Lake an ill-advised state police action turned Doscher, who had just begun studying native says of his construction job right cause célèbre. Each is being developed as acting at the famed Lee Strasberg Theater out of high school. “I said to myself, ‘I a documentary and a feature film. Institute in New York City, “auditioned” guess I’m gonna be an ironworker.’” That’s pretty heady fare for a fledgling for Aiello by doing a dead-on impression It was a reasonable guess. His father production company. of Jack Nicholson reciting a letter was a third-generation ironworker whose Meanwhile, Jack Nicholson’s agent written to … Jon Doscher. It was an construction credits included the World has Doscher on speed-dial, and the local American Idol moment in a private home. STrade Center, and the late-1980s boom actor-producer has pitched a role to What made it even more of a hit is was at hand. But there is more than one Morgan Freeman. The view can be that the letter was for real. Two years way to scale the heights. Doscher, now dizzying, but Doscher is a realist. “In this earlier, Doscher had sent Nicholson a 34 35, has since selected a trade perhaps business,” he says, “you need a break.” letter seeking advice, accompanied by an more treacherous than riding a girder. Doscher has made many of his own expensive box of cigars. When the acting Doscher’s Starline Films, which is breaks. That young ironworker launched icon failed to respond, Doscher pressed nearly three years old, is on the cusp of a a painting and power-washing business the issue with a second letter. Finally, breakthrough. With several movies either that ran for a dozen years which proved Nicholson, the pride of Neptune and Jon Doscher working the phones in the works or in the can, the Upper to be a conduit to the movie business. In Manasquan High School, wrote back. at the offices of Starline Films, located in Upper Saddle River. WHERE STYLE COMES TO nj LIFE LIFE STORY “You seemed fraught,” the letter from adaptation of the book The Bronx Zoo, a Hollywood said. “The cigars were lovely.” People like him,” actor Danny Aiello peek inside the rowdy clubhouse of the So Doscher heard the famous voice in “ New York Yankees in the 1970s. his head and laid it on Aiello, who told says of Doscher. “He’s bright and Doscher, who hopes to expand financ- him to leave the acting classes and start ing for all his projects. So far “we’re auditioning for roles in the real world. aggressive, but not in an overbearing doing it with virtually no funding, peo- Doscher kept his day job and, in 2003, a ple deferring income,” he says. producer/client cast him as an FBI agent way. He’ll go far in this business. Often, one big name can launch the in the organized-crime movie This Thing enterprise. A Morgan Freeman or a of Ours (starring Frank Vincent of The ” Samuel L. Jackson in the role of Johnnie Sopranos). Later, he portrayed a drug- sive, but not in an overbearing way. He’ll trial, his defense appeared to be less Cochran in 4Chosen, for example, could addled dentist in the offbeat thriller go far in this business.” than stellar, and ultimately, De La Roche make all the difference, but actors who Remedy, which he co-produced as well. Although the tall, sandy-haired rejected a plea and was convicted on four command $15 million per picture aren’t Doing that double duty was a body Doscher seems comfortable in his own counts of first-degree murder. He was wild about deferred income. builder for Doscher. “It was shot for skin and knows the value of humor, the sentenced to life in prison. Indeed, the thicket of agents, man- $175,000,” he says. “We proved we could material he chose at the outset is far from Starline is adapting the book into a agers, and potential corporate sponsors make it and release it.” warm and fuzzy. Soon after acquiring the movie, which has begun shooting. is not easy to negotiate. Yet Doscher and He hung the Starline shingle out in rights to the 1979 book Anyone’s Son, he Meanwhile, Starline completed the his company are committed to film proj- June 2004 and quickly identified interviewed the book’s subject and co- companion documentary, Harry: A ects with social heft. material he wished to develop. Aiello’s author at the latter’s home base: South Communications Breakdown, which pre- Persistence has paid off; some “names” Revolution Earth Productions has joined Woods State Prison in Bridgeton. Five viewed late last year. Aiello, the documen- have signed on. For the 4Chosen docu- Starline to produce four projects to date. months after graduating from Pascack tary’s narrator, portrays the defendant’s mentary, Doscher has secured a charis- He calls Aiello a “mentor, partner, and Hills High School in 1976, Harry De La attorney in the feature Anyone’s Son, in matic narrator in ESPN commentator close friend.” That’s a role that suits the Roche had killed his parents and two which he is making his directorial debut. Stephen A. Smith, a Philadelphia Inquirer versatile Aiello. “People like him,” he younger brothers during Thanksgiving Starline’s other feature-doc duo, sports columnist. says of Doscher. “He’s bright and aggres- weekend in their Montvale home. At his 4Chosen and 4Chosen: The Documentary, David Anspaugh and Angelo Pizzo, centers on an event just as disturbing, the directing-writing team of Hoosiers though not as deadly. In 1998, New and Rudy, are on board. According to Doscher on the set Jersey state troopers on the trail of gun- Starline, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark of Remedy (2004) runners stopped a van near Turnpike Cuban has expressed interest in distrib- Exit 7A. Inside the rented vehicle were uting the 4Chosen films through his four young black men on their way to a Magnolia Pictures. basketball tryout in North Carolina. Doscher plans to cast himself as the Flustered, the driver allowed the van to attorney who represented the four men drift off the edge of the shoulder. The in 4Chosen. Which, as if life were con- troopers opened fire, and 13 shots rang forming to a script, brings the filmmaker out, injuring three of the young men. full circle to Mr. Nicholson. There’s a The case drew the attention of the part in 4Chosen for the Los Angeles Rev. Al Sharpton and Johnnie Cochran Lakers’ No. 1 fan, and word is that he’s and prompted an investigation of racial- interested. As the screenplay grows profiling practices by the state police. A more polished through rewrites, there’s civil settlement was ultimately reached, hope he may become even more so. though criminal charges were dropped. For that happy ending, Starline After a lengthy pursuit, Doscher gained probably will need hefty helpings of 36 the rights to the story. He says the most money, stamina, and luck. Their 37 compelling message is that the victims projects have momentum, though, have come through their misfortune and and Doscher can handle the verdict, “used it positively in their lives.” whatever it is. He knows that, in the The company is developing some motion picture business, you need an comedic properties as well, including an iron constitution. WHERE STYLE COMES TO nj LIFE.