Born in 1947, Franzoni began writing in the 1970s after reading Daniel P. Mannix’s 1958 study of Roman gladiatorial combat. His early foray into Hollywood produced the comedy Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986), but his reputation solidified with the historical drama Amistad (1997), where he persuaded Steven Spielberg to direct and deliberately avoided conventional narratives about enslaved protagonists. Th…
