David Harold Franzoni (born March 4, 1947) is an American

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and film producer. He conceived the story for, co-wrote and co-produced the 2000 film ''

Gladiator A gladiator ( , ) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their ...

'', for which he was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award (also known as an Oscar) for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best ...

and won the

Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film a ...

. His other screenplays include ''

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

'' (2004), '' Amistad'' (1997), and '' Jumpin’ Jack Flash'' (1986).

Career

Franzoni's script for ''Gladiator'' was a revival of the

sword-and-sandal Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (: pepla), is a subgenre of largely Italy, Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget ...

genre, using characters very different from the original and drawing upon available historic and archaeological sources. He started to write the story in the 1970s, after reading the 1958 non-fiction book ''Those About to Die'' by Daniel P. Mannix, which detailed the Roman

gladiator A gladiator ( , ) was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their ...

ial games. For ''Amistad'', Franzoni decided not to use a standard narrative, explaining, "the typical slant in this sort of film is to have the poor, chained black man arrive in the presence of the white guy, who has a good soul and fights the good faith to liberate the black man." Franzoni was also the one who convinced

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

to direct the film. Franzoni stated that the screenplay of ''King Arthur'' "aims more for history than myth," and again relied upon archaeological evidence in an attempt to create a more realistic human and political interpretation of the character.

Filmography

References

Bibliography

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External links

* 1947 births Living people American male screenwriters Filmmakers who won the Best Film BAFTA Award Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award University of Vermont alumni {{US-screen-writer-1940s-stub