Alvin Sargent & Laura Ziskin · 7:01pm Nov 20th, 2023
As quoted from the petition’s status update:
Alvin Sargent and Laura Ziskin were a duo of filmmakers who frequently collaborated on various projects, later becoming a married couple in 2010. Sargent was often the screenwriter of the films they worked on together, while Ziskin served as a producer.
The first project they collaborated on was Disney’s “What About Bob?”, where Ziskin not only produced the film but co-wrote the story with Sargent. A year later, Ziskin and Sargent worked together on Columbia Pictures’ “Hero”, with Ziskin again being a producer and co-writing the story with Sargent and David Webb Peoples.
However, the biggest projects they collaborated on were Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy and the first “The Amazing Spider-Man” film.
For the trilogy, Ziskin was a co-producer of the three films, while Sargent contributed to the writing. He made uncredited writing contributions to the first film, mainly by polishing the dialogue. For the 2nd movie, Sargent was the main screenwriter, with the screenplay being based on a story by Michael Chabon, Miles Millar, and Alfred Gough. And for the 3rd movie, he co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi, who also wrote the story.
For “The Amazing Spider-Man”, Ziskin once again co-produced, and Sargent co-wrote the screenplay for the film alongside Steve Kloves and James Vanderbilt, the latter also being the writer of the story. The film as a whole would later go on to be Ziskin and Sargent’s final collaboration, one of Ziskin’s last movies, and Sargent’s final film in general. Before the film’s release, Ziskin died of breast cancer on June 12, 2011, with both “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Butler” being dedicated in her memory. Meanwhile, Sargent quietly retired from the film industry following the release of “The Amazing Spider-Man”, and he later died of natural causes on May 9, 2019.
Similar to composer James Horner, as well as Irrfan Khan, I thought that a director’s cut of the first “The Amazing Spider-Man” film would serve as a perfect dedication for Ziskin and Sargent. I mean, I’m well aware that they must’ve dedicated the theatrical version to Ziskin's memory, but I’m not sure if it truly did her justice because of all the apparent missing pieces and restrained-potential.
Other than that, it occurred to me that Sargent, Vanderbilt, and Kloves must’ve created material for Marc Webb to film but didn’t make it in the theatrical version. It would be wonderful to see what important missing scenes Sargent and company created & Webb filmed, and it would truly serve as a brilliant dedication for both Ziskin and Sargent.
If anyone would like to sign, share, and support the petition, click on the link above the picture:
