A Conversation with Nina Jacobson, President of Buena Vista Pictures and Audrey Wells, writer and director of "Under the Tuscan Sun".

A Conversation with the President of Buena Vista Pictures and the Director of "Under the Tuscan Sun"

by George O. Singleton

Nina Jacobson (NJ), the President of Buena Vista Pictures, a division of Disney, along with Audrey Wells (AW), the writer and director of "Under The Tuscan Sun", share their thoughts with us about this picture in particular and the movie industry in general. The film is adapted from the best-selling memoir of the same name by Frances Mayes. Diane Lane stars as Frances, a woman wrecked by a cruel divorce, who finds herself renewed as she renovates a villa in Italy.

NJ: Getting unceremoniously dumped is much more of a familiar component of the romance in our day to day lives than the storybook romance of external obstacles keeping people apart. They overcome them and get together. This is about the fact that you can recover from a broken heart, build yourself up from the ashes, and make a family out of your community. I think that those things are very romantic. Audiences want to be surprised. They are sick of being taken for granted. This will surprise them in a good way. Everybody has been dumped. It's a universal experience.

Nina also added that one of the lessons of the summer (she made "Pirates of the Caribbean") is that you can't tell people how much they will love your movie. The marketing and publicity of the studios can be overkill. Expectations can be so high they cannot be reached. They wrote us off because a movie on pirates was thought to be a dud. Audiences don't like being told what will be a hit and what will not. For me, I keep coming back to having a good script. Audiences want great story telling. They know it when they see it.

AW: Every character has a broken heart. There is a miracle in the transition of wanting to die and wanting to live again. It's important to keep your childish innocence.

NJ: Most men who have seen the movie like it much better than they thought, even with getting Diane Lane for two hours. The word of mouth will be a good, good thing for this movie. Also, we have exciting films in the coming months, such as "The Alamo," "Veronica Guerin," and "Calendar Girls." We've had commercial success and we are hoping for critical success (Golden Globes/Oscar nominations).

"Freaky Friday" and "Pirates" shows that not only do I like our movies but others do as well. My boss, Michael Eisner, has encouraged me to only make movies I personally really believe in.

GS: With respect to computer generated images, this movie seems to have the right balance. How much direction did you provide?

AW: The Polish are to Italians as the Central Americans are to Los Angeles. The inter-ethnic relationships in the film provide romantic tension. The hardest thing is writing by committee. Also, adaptations are easier than the original, as you have a solid story to begin with. I made quite a few changes from the book to keep it moving at the right pace. It still deals with food preparation and ceremony but to a lesser degree than the book.

Our thoughts are that "Under the Tuscan Sun" has the right mix of ingredients. It's a great date movie, even if you are married. Maybe especially if you are married!