Sacha Gervasi

Sacha Gervasi
Sacha Gervasi during the filming of Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Born	Alexander Gervasi 1966 London, England
Occupation	Screenwriter / Director

Sacha Gervasi (b. 1966) is a British journalist and screen-writer and director of films.

Early life and career in screen-writing

Born in London in 1966, Sacha 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.^[1]

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]."^[2]

Other films for which he has written include Comrade Rockstar for Tom Hanks and How to Marry a Millionaire for Nicole Kidman. He has written and will executive produce Henry's Crime, starring Keanu Reeves, James Caan and Vera Farmiga. The film shoots December 2009 in New York City.^[3]

In 2010 he will write and direct a biopic of midget 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.^[4]

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 '82, '84 and '85 tours, and was given the nickname "teabag" by the band.^[5] He reunited with Anvil after a break of 20 years, and started shooting a rockumentary about them in November 2005^[5].

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 been nominated in the "Truer Than Fiction" category of Film Independent's 2009 Independent Spirit Awards. The award recognizes emerging directors of non-fiction films.^[6][7]

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.^[8]

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. ^[9][10][11]

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. ^[12][13]

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 Holland, 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 Hitler and Mussolini.^[14]

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 and UNPFA Goodwill Ambassador 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^[15]. 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^[5].

References

External links

• Q&A with Sacha Gevasi on the making of Anvil!: The Story of Anvil
• Sacha Gervasi at the Internet Movie Database