Alex Kurtzman

Alex Kurtzman
Kurtzman in May 2017
Born	(1973-09-07) September 7, 1973 (age 45) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Alexander Kurtzman, Alexander Hilary Kurtzman
Occupation	Writer, producer, director
Years active	1996–present
Spouse(s)	Samantha Counter (m. 2002)

Alex Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American film and television writer, producer, and director. He is best known for co-writing the scripts to Transformers, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 with his writing and producing partner Roberto Orci, and directing and co-writing The Mummy.

Contents

• 
  1 Early life
  


• 
  2 Career
  


• 
  3 Personal life
  


• 
  4 Filmography
  
  
  
  • 
    4.1 Television credits
    
  
  
  
  


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  5 References
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Early life

Kurtzman was born and raised to a secular Jewish family^[1][2][3] in Los Angeles, California,^[4] where he met his high school friend and longtime collaborator Roberto Orci. He attended Wesleyan University.^[5]

Career

Kurtzman first teamed with Orci on television on the syndicated series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, for the television unit of Pacific Renaissance Pictures, then operating out of Universal International. After they produced several storylines to cope with the absence of lead actor Kevin Sorbo following a stroke that Sorbo had suffered during the fourth season, Kurtzman and Orci, both aged 24, were placed in charge of the show. They moved into films after they were asked to rewrite Michael Bay's The Island. The film earned $162 million at the worldwide box office, on a budget of $126 million, which was enough of a success that they were brought to write Bay's Transformers, which earned $710 million. Though The Island, Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were not particularly well received by critics, the three films earned a combined $1.7 billion. They co-created the Fox TV series Fringe in 2008 along with J. J. Abrams. After the pilot, Kurtzman served as consulting producer on the show for the remainder of its run.^[6] They then co-wrote the 2009 film Star Trek.

In 2011, Forbes magazine described Orci and Kurtzman as "Hollywood's Secret Weapons" as, over the course of the previous six years, their films had grossed a combined total of over $3 billion at the box office. The partnership also wrote People Like Us, originally known as Welcome to People, which was Kurtzman's directorial debut.^[6]

He frequently collaborates with a tightly knit group of film professionals which include J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Adam Horowitz, Roberto Orci, Edward Kitsis, Andre Nemec, Josh Appelbaum, Jeff Pinkner, and Bryan Burk.^[2] In April 2014, both Orci and Kurtzman confirmed to Variety that they would no longer work together on film projects; they added that they would still work together—but only on television projects.^[7]

Personal life

In 2002, Kurtzman married Samantha Counter, the daughter of lawyer Nick Counter.^[8]

Filmography

Year	Title	Credited as			Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer
2005	The Island	No	Yes	No	Co-wrote with Roberto Orci and Caspian Tredwell-Owen
	The Legend of Zorro	No	Yes	No	Co-wrote with Roberto Orci, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio
2006	Mission: Impossible III	No	Yes	No	Co-wrote with J. J. Abrams and Roberto Orci
2007	Transformers	No	Yes	No	Co-wrote with Roberto Orci and John Rogers
2008	Eagle Eye	No	No	Yes
2009	Watchmen	No	Yes	No	uncredited script polish[9]
	Star Trek	No	Yes	executive	Co-wrote with Roberto Orci
	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	No	Yes	No	Co-wrote with Ehren Kruger and Roberto Orci
	The Proposal	No	No	executive
2011	Cowboys & Aliens	No	Yes	Yes	Co-wrote with Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof, Steve Oedekerk, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby
2012	People Like Us	Yes	Yes	executive	Directorial debut; co-wrote with Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert
2013	Star Trek Into Darkness	No	Yes	Yes	Co-wrote with Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof
	Now You See Me	No	No	Yes
	Ender's Game	No	No	Yes
2014	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	No	Yes	executive[10]	Co-wrote with Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, and James Vanderbilt
2016	The Brothers Grimsby	No	No	No	Special thanks
	Now You See Me 2	No	No	Yes
2017	The Mummy	Yes	Yes	Yes	Wrote the story; co-wrote with Jon Spaihts, Jenny Lumet, David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie and Dylan Kussman

Television credits

Year	TV Series	Credit	Notes
1997–1999	Hercules: The Legendary Journeys	Co-executive producer, writer
1999–2000	Xena: Warrior Princess
2000	Jack of All Trades	Executive producer, writer
2001–2003	Alias	Supervising producer, co-executive producer, executive producer, writer
2004	The Secret Service	Co-creator, executive producer, co-writer	Pilot
2008–2013	Fringe	Co-creator, executive producer, consulting producer, writer
2010–2013	Transformers Prime	Executive producer
2010–present	Hawaii Five-0	Co-developer, executive producer, writer
2011	Exit Strategy	Co-creator, executive producer, co-writer	Pilot
	Locke & Key	Co-developer, executive producer, co-writer
2013–2017	Sleepy Hollow	Co-creator, co-writer, executive producer
2014	Matador	Executive producer
2014–2018	Scorpion
2015	Limitless
2017–present	Star Trek: Discovery	Executive producer, co-creator; writer (story): "The Vulcan Hello"; director: "Brother"
2017–2018	Salvation	Executive producer

References

1. 
   ^ Jewish Journal: "Screenwriter Alex Kurtzman ‘Transforms’ filmdom’s giant robot genre" by Adam Wills July 5, 2007
   


2. 
   ^ ^ab Variety Magazine: "Abrams keeps it all in the fan family - J.J. and his collaborators conquer Hollywood" By Cynthia Littleton October 16, 2009 |"We’re all self-deprecating short Jews, with the exception of Bob Orci”
   


3. 
   ^ Jewish Journal: "Jews Get Geek on at Comic-Con" by Adam Wills July 22, 2009
   


4. 
   ^ "Alex Kurtzman Biography". IGN. Archived from the original on 2012-01-06. Retrieved 2012-08-16..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


5. 
   ^ Itzkoff, Dave. "Character-Driven Films (but Keep the Kaboom)". New York Times.
   


6. 
   ^ ^ab Pomerantz, Dorothy (May 18, 2011). "Roberto Orci And Alex Kurtzman: Hollywood's Secret Weapons". Forbes.
   


7. 
   ^ "Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci Splitting Up on Bigscreen (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. April 22, 2014. Retrieved 2014-04-22.
   


8. 
   ^ Hubler, Shawn (June 27, 2007). "Reel life was his real love". Los Angeles Times.
   


9. 
   ^ Roberto Orci (2008-08-10). "The All New "Hey Roberto" Thread". Don Murphy. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
   


10. 
    ^ Fleming, Mike (April 24, 2012). "Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci Re-Writing Sequel To 'Amazing Spider-Man'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
    

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Alex Kurtzman

• 
  Alex Kurtzman on IMDb

v t e Alex Kurtzman
Films directed	People Like Us (2012) The Mummy (2017)
Television series created	Fringe (2008–2013) Hawaii Five-0 (2010–present) Sleepy Hollow (2013–2017) Star Trek: Discovery (2017–present)

v t e Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay
1980–2000	Can't Stop the Music – Bronte Woodard and Allan Carr (1980) Mommie Dearest – Frank Yablans, Frank Perry, Tracy Hotchner and Robert Getchell (1981) Inchon – Robin Moore and Laird Koenig (1982) The Lonely Lady – John Kershaw, Shawn Randall and Ellen Shephard (1983) Bolero – John Derek (1984) Rambo: First Blood Part II – Sylvester Stallone, James Cameron and Kevin Jarre (1985) Howard the Duck – Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz (1986) Leonard Part 6 – Jonathan Reynolds and Bill Cosby (1987) Cocktail – Heywood Gould (1988) Harlem Nights – Eddie Murphy (1989) The Adventures of Ford Fairlane – Daniel Waters, James Cappe & David Arnott (1990) Hudson Hawk – Steven E. de Souza, Daniel Waters, Bruce Willis and Robert Kraft (1991) Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot – Blake Snyder, William Osborne and William Davies – (1992) Indecent Proposal – Amy Holden Jones (1993) The Flintstones – Jim Jennewein, Steven E. de Souza, Tom S. Parker and various others (1994) Showgirls – Joe Eszterhas (1995) Striptease – Andrew Bergman (1996) The Postman – Eric Roth and Brian Helgeland (1997) An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn – Joe Eszterhas (1998) Wild Wild West – Jim Thomas, John Thomas, S. S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman (1999) Battlefield Earth – Corey Mandell and J. David Shapiro (2000)
2001–present	Freddy Got Fingered – Tom Green & Derek Harvie (2001) Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones – George Lucas and Jonathan Hales (2002) Gigli – Martin Brest (2003) Catwoman – Theresa Rebeck, John Brancato, Michael Ferris and John Rogers (2004) Dirty Love – Jenny McCarthy (2005) Basic Instinct 2 – Leora Barish and Henry Bean (2006) I Know Who Killed Me – Jeffrey Hammond (2007) The Love Guru – Mike Myers & Graham Gordy (2008) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Ehren Kruger, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (2009) The Last Airbender – M. Night Shyamalan (2010) Jack and Jill – Steve Koren and Adam Sandler, story by Ben Zook (2011) That's My Boy – David Caspe (2012) Movie 43 – Steve Baker, Ricky Blitt, Will Carlough, Tobias Carlson, Jacob Fleisher, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Claes Kjellstrom, Jack Kukoda, Bob Odenkirk, Bill O'Malley, Matthew Alec Portenoy, Greg Pritikin, Rocky Russo, Olle Sarri, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, Jeremy Sosenko, Jonathan van Tulleken and Jonas Wittenmark (2013) Saving Christmas – Darren Doane and Cheston Hervey (2014) Fifty Shades of Grey - Kelly Marcel (2015) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer (2016) The Emoji Movie – Tony Leondis, Eric Siegel and Mike White (2017) Fifty Shades Freed – Niall Leonard (2018)

Authority control	BIBSYS: 6096511 BNE: XX4614319 BNF: cb15018774g (data) GND: 137633629 ISNI: 0000 0001 1591 8357 LCCN: n2006036342 NDL: 001187927 NKC: xx0071288 SUDOC: 129915270 VIAF: 7664930 WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 7664930

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