Alexander Sacha Simon Gervasi (born 1966) is a British journalist, screenwriter and Independent Spirit Award and Emmy Award winning director.
Early life and career in screen-writing
Born Alexander Gervasi in London in 1966, Gervasi was educated at Westminster School, and then read modern history at King’s College London. As a teenager in 1981, Gervasi befriended Canadian metal band Anvil when they played London and became a roadie for the band on three tours eventually becoming close friends until a falling out in 1986.
Gervasi’s first position was to work for the Poet Laureate of England, Ted Hughes at the Arvon Writing Foundation, founded by two young poets, John Fairfax and John Moat, in 1968. After completing his degree, he subsequently worked for John Calder of the Samuel Beckett archive helping to arrange a vast sale of Beckett’s personal papers at Sotheby’s in 1989, including Beckett’s own annotated version of Waiting for Godot which sold to Trinity College… read more
Alexander Sacha Simon Gervasi (born 1966) is a British journalist, screenwriter and Independent Spirit Award and Emmy Award winning director.
Early life and career in screen-writing
Born Alexander Gervasi in London in 1966, Gervasi was educated at Westminster School, and then read modern history at King’s College London. As a teenager in 1981, Gervasi befriended Canadian metal band Anvil when they played London and became a roadie for the band on three tours eventually becoming close friends until a falling out in 1986.
Gervasi’s first position was to work for the Poet Laureate of England, Ted Hughes at the Arvon Writing Foundation, founded by two young poets, John Fairfax and John Moat, in 1968. After completing his degree, he subsequently worked for John Calder of the Samuel Beckett archive helping to arrange a vast sale of Beckett’s personal papers at Sotheby’s in 1989, including Beckett’s own annotated version of Waiting for Godot which sold to Trinity College, Dublin.
Gervasi moved to Los Angeles in 1995 to attend the graduate screen-writing programme at UCLA Film School, where he twice won the BAFTA/LA scholarship. While in the programme, he supported himself by working as a journalist, writing for newspapers and magazines, including The Sunday Times, The Observer, and Punch.
Gervasi got his film writing start with The Big Tease, which he co-wrote with Craig Ferguson. He went on to pen The Terminal, made into a film in 2004 directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks. According to London’s The Daily Telegraph: “He is one of only two English screenwriters to have their scripts made into movies by Steven Spielberg. The other is Tom Stoppard [for Empire of the Sun].”
Other films for which he has written include Comrade Rockstar for Tom Hanks and How to Marry a Millionaire for Nicole Kidman. He wrote and executive produced Henry’s Crime, starring Keanu Reeves, James Caan and Vera Farmiga. The film debuts at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2010.
In 2010 he will write and direct a biopic of actor Herve Villechaize based on Gervasi’s own interviews with the diminutive Frenchman, conducted only days before the actor committed suicide in 1993. The film is to be produced by Oscar winning Schindler’s List scribe Steven Zaillian.
In 2009, Gervasi presented Steven Zaillian with the Austin Film Festival’s Distinguished Screenwriter Award.
From 1999-2000 he was the voice of Jaguar cars on U.S. radio and television.
He was appointed the Hunter/Zakin screenwriting chair at UCLA and taught there in spring 2009.
Directorial début
Gervasi directed Anvil! The Story of Anvil, a documentary of the Canadian heavy metal band, Anvil, who had then been together for over 30 years. Gervasi first met Anvil on September 21, 1982, after a gig at The Marquee Club in London. He introduced himself to the band as “England’s number one Anvil fan”. He subsequently became a roadie for the band on their 1982, 1984 and 1985 tours, and was given the nickname “teabag” by the band. He reunited with Anvil after a break of 20 years, and started shooting a rockumentary about them in November 2005.
The film premièred at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, and won Audience Awards at the 2008 Sydney Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival and Galway International Film Festival.
The film has received praise and high acclaim in many reviews, including a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Michael Moore said that the movie is “the best documentary I’ve seen in years” and The Times called it “possibly the greatest film yet made about rock and roll”.
The film was named Best Documentary of 2009 at the Evening Standard British Film Awards in London. Chris Martin of Coldplay presented the award.
In 2009, the MPAA opened the category of Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10. In October 2009, Anvil! The Story of Anvil was the first screener to be sent out for considering of the expanded Best Picture category as well as for Best Documentary. There was disappointment when ‘Anvil’ was one of the more high profile films not short-listed in the Best Documentary category.
The film went on to win Best Documentary at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards in Los Angeles and Best Music Film and Best Documentary Feature at the International Documentary Association Awards.
Anvil! The Story of Anvil is also nominated for an Emmy Award in 2010 in the category of Outstanding Arts and Cultural Programming.
Personal life
His father Sean Gervasi was an economic advisor to John F. Kennedy in the White House, an expert in Yugoslav affairs, and taught economics at Oxford, the LSE and the University Of Paris at Vincennes.
His uncle Tom Gervasi was an expert on intelligence matters and author of the Myth of Soviet Military Supremacy and the Arsenal of Democracy series.
His grandfather Frank Gervasi was Rome bureau chief for Hearst’s International News Service and joined Collier’s Weekly at the start of World War II, covering the fall of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. He was later a correspondent for The Washington Post and the chief of information for the Marshall Plan in Italy. He was the author of a dozen books including A Violent Decade which detailed his life as a journalist in Rome and his personal encounters with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
His grandmother was Katherine McQuiggan from Philadelphia but he grew up with fifties singer Georgia Gibbs who married his grandfather Frank in the late 1950s and whose million-selling singles include “Kiss of Fire”, “Dance with Me, Henry” and “Tweedle Dee”. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Gervasi is the father of Bluebell Madonna Halliwell, daughter of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, born on 14 May 2006. It is believed that Gervasi is the inspiration for the character of ‘Alex De Silva’ in the book How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young. While in London, he co-founded the music group Future Primitives with Gavin Rossdale, playing drums, but left the year before they changed their name to Bush and subsequently became world-famous. —Wikipedia
