Alex Tse (born 1976) is an American screenwriter who wrote the 2004 gangster film ''
Sucker Free City
''Sucker Free City'' is a 2004 television film directed by Spike Lee. The film examines white, black, and Chinese characters in San Francisco and the conflicts they encounter with each other. The film was intended to be the pilot for a Showtime ...
'', co-wrote the 2009 superhero film ''
Watchmen
''Watchmen'' is an American comic book Limited series (comics), maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins (comics), John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 a ...
'', and wrote the 2018 film ''
Superfly''. He is also a writer and executive producer for the 2019 series ''
Wu-Tang: An American Saga''.
Tse grew up in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and attended
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
Background
Alex Tse, a
Chinese American
Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...
, was born in 1976 to a banker father and a teacher mother.
He grew up in the
Richmond District in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. He went to Alamo Elementary School,
Presidio Middle School, and
Lowell High School in the area.
When Tse was growing up, his parents were movie fans, and he was incidentally exposed to movies not appropriate for his age like ''
Heavy Metal'', ''
Prom Night'', and ''
Altered States
''Altered States'' is a 1980 American science fiction body horror film directed by Ken Russell and based on the novel of the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. The film was adapted from Chayefsky's 1978 novel and is his f ...
''.
His father's favorite film was ''
The Godfather
''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, ...
'', and the family would watch two films every Christmas, such as ''
To Live and Die in L.A.''.
Tse attended
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
When Tse was a first-year student at Emerson, he explored
journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
as a career by having a radio show and realized that it was not his aspiration. He saw ''
Pulp Fiction
''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...
'' and was inspired by the film to pursue a screenwriting career.
He described ''Pulp Fiction''s influence on him:
After Tse graduated from college,
he moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in December 1998 to pursue a writing career.
He worked for under three years producing rap videos and working part-time jobs for
Miramax Films
Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey Weinstein, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California.
It was ...
and
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...
.
One of his first productions was the music video for the single "You Never Knew" from the album ''
3rd Eye Vision
''3rd Eye Vision'' is the first studio album by American hip hop collective Hieroglyphics. It was released by Hieroglyphics Imperium Recordings on March 24, 1998. It peaked at number 26 on the ''Billboard'' Heatseekers Albums chart, as well as num ...
'' by
Hieroglyphics
Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
, and the video eventually aired on ''
Yo! MTV Raps
''Yo! MTV Raps'' is an American two-hour television music video program, which first aired on MTV Europe from 1987 to mid-90s and on MTV US from August 1988 to August 1995. The American version of the program (created by Ted Demme and Peter Dough ...
''. His work attracted the attention of other independent rappers, for whom he also produced videos. He was encouraged to begin
temping and found temp work at Disney, particularly under then-president
Peter Schneider. Tse also learned more about screenwriting by reading scripts, with two noteworthy examples being the
onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
in
James Mangold
James Allen Mangold (born December 16, 1963) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for the films ''Cop Land'' (1997), '' Girl, Interrupted'' (1999), ''Walk the Line'' (2005), '' 3:10 to Yuma'' (2007), '' The Wolverine'' (2013) and '' Logan'' ...
's script for ''
Heavy
Heavy may refer to:
Measures
* Heavy (aeronautics), a term used by pilots and air traffic controllers to refer to aircraft capable of 300,000 lbs or more takeoff weight
* Heavy, a characterization of objects with substantial weight
* Heavy, ...
'' and the sarcasm in the narrative for ''
Man on the Moon''.
Career
After three years of small jobs, Tse sold to television-based
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
a script called ''87 Fleer'', about four middle-class kids from the Richmond District. The company was impressed with his script and encouraged him to write a pilot about gangs.
By June 2002, Tse submitted a first-story outline titled ''The Game'' for a potential television series. By the following September, the outline was developed into a full script that eventually became the Showtime
television movie
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
''
Sucker Free City
''Sucker Free City'' is a 2004 television film directed by Spike Lee. The film examines white, black, and Chinese characters in San Francisco and the conflicts they encounter with each other. The film was intended to be the pilot for a Showtime ...
'' (2004), directed by
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...
. For the film, Tse won a literary award from
PEN Center USA
PEN Center USA was a branch of PEN, an international literary and human rights organization. It was one of two PEN International Centers in the United States, the other being the PEN America in New York City. On March 1, 2018, PEN Center USA unifi ...
for best teleplay, and he was nominated for best screenplay (original or adapted) for the 2006
Black Reel Awards
The Black Reel Awards, or BRAs, is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF) to recognize excellence of African Americans, as well as the cinematic achievements of the Afr ...
.
After ''Sucker Free City'' was released, Tse and Lee discussed the possibility of producing a feature film based on Tse's first script ''87 Fleer''.
Tse developed a script for an untitled project for the singer
Ashanti. He also developed a script for a remake of ''
Super Fly'' (1972) for Warner Bros. and Silver.
Tse said that the remake "had nothing to do with the original" and that it evolved into a possible film titled ''Gangland''.
After ''Sucker Free City'', Tse performed uncredited production rewrites for such films as ''
House of Wax'', ''
Step Up'', and its sequel, ''
Step Up 2: The Streets''.
He was also attached as screenwriter to adapt the following films that went unproduced: the 1951 science-fiction short-story collection ''
The Illustrated Man
''The Illustrated Man'' is a 1951 collection of 18 science fiction short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury. A recurring theme throughout the stories is the conflict of the cold mechanics of technology and the psychology of people. It was ...
'' and the 2005 American thriller novel ''
The Winter of Frankie Machine
''The Winter of Frankie Machine'' is a 2006 thriller novel by American writer Don Winslow.
The book was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller, ''Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller.
Plot summary
Fra ...
''. Tse's major screenwriting debut came when he was a co-writer for the 2009 superhero film ''
Watchmen
''Watchmen'' is an American comic book Limited series (comics), maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins (comics), John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 a ...
'', which was directed by
Zack Snyder
Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with '' Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since t ...
. He and fellow screenwriter
David Hayter
David Hayter is a Canadian-American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is well known as the English-language voice actor for Solid Snake and Naked Snake in the ''Metal Gear'' video game series. He wrote the film ''X-Men'' and co-w ...
were nominated for a
Saturn Award for Best Writing
The Saturn Awards for Best Writing is a Saturn Award presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
Unlike most awards rewarding writing in films, it recognizes only the writer(s) of the screenplay, and not those of the story ...
for ''Watchmen''. After ''Watchmen'', Tse was attached to adapt the following films that went unproduced: 1961 children's book ''
The Phantom Tollbooth
''The Phantom Tollbooth'' is a children's fantasy adventure novel written by Norton Juster, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, first published in 1961. The story follows a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollb ...
'' and the 2005 science fiction novel ''
The Traveler''. In 2012, Tse said he was planning to make his directorial debut with ''87 Fleer''. Toward the end of 2013, Tse was hired by
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
to write the script for a film adaptation of the racing video game series ''
Gran Turismo''. ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' called Tse "one of the bigger names in genre screenwriting" for his work on the following films that went unproduced: a remake of ''
The Crow
The Crow is a supernatural superhero comic book series created by James O'Barr revolving around the titular character of the same name. The series, which was originally created by O'Barr as a means of dealing with the death of his fiancée at t ...
'', a live-action remake of the anime film ''
Ninja Scroll
is a 1993 Japanese animated ''jidaigeki''- ''chanbara'' film written and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, starring the voices of Kōichi Yamadera, Emi Shinohara, Takeshi Aono, Daisuke Gōri, Toshihiko Seki and Shūichirō Moriyama. The film was a ...
'', a film adaptation of the graphic novel ''Battling Boy'' by
Paul Pope
Paul Pope (born September 25, 1970, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American alternative cartoonist. Pope's work combines the precision and romance of European comics artists with the energy and page design of the manga tradition. Pope's tw ...
, and a remake of ''
Highlander''.
Tse
optioned in 2014 the rights to the 2010 graphic novel ''Tribes: The Dog Years'' by Michael Geszel and Peter Spinetta with an interest in writing and producing a film adaptation. In 2017, the film was in development with Tse executive producing with Joel Silver's Silver Pictures. Later in the year,
Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...
bought the rights to ''Super Fly'' to remake the film based on a script by Tse. The remake, titled ''Superfly'', premiered in June 2018.
In April 2018, Alex Tse was writing the screenplay for ''The Last Masters'', a martial arts action thriller that is a US-China co-production between
Global Road Entertainment
Open Road Films, LLC (formerly Global Road Entertainment from 2017 to 2018) is an American film production and distribution company based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded by Eric Hohl on March 26, 2011 as a joint venture between the t ...
and Tang Media Partners. In the following October,
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
ordered the ten-episode drama ''
Wu-Tang: An American Saga'', a series about the American hip hop group
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close affili ...
.
The series, which premiered in September 2019, was created and written by
The RZA
Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name the RZA ( ), is an American rapper, actor, filmmaker, and record producer. He is the ''de facto'' leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, having produced most albums ...
and Tse.
Credits
Personal life
Tse's favorite films include ''
Annie Hall
''Annie Hall'' is a 1977 American satirical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay written by him and Marshall Brickman, and produced by Allen's manager, Charles H. Joffe. The film stars Allen as Alvy Singer, w ...
'' and ''
Major League''.
In 2006, Tse married Lisa, a graphic designer.
See also
*
History of the Chinese Americans in San Francisco
As of 2012, 21.4% of the population in San Francisco was of Chinese descent, and there were at least 150,000 Chinese American residents. The Chinese are the largest Asian American subgroup in San Francisco.Fagan, Kevin.Asian population swells in B ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tse, Alex
1976 births
American male screenwriters
American writers of Chinese descent
Emerson College alumni
Living people
Lowell High School (San Francisco) alumni
Writers from San Francisco
Screenwriters from California