SUBMITTED BY Timbo

September 23, 2003 — Call it Shirley Valentine for thirty-somethings -- Under the Tuscan Sun had a storied journey from book to big-screen.

When Audrey Wells set out to adapt the bestselling memoir "Under the Tuscan Sun'' for the screen, she knew she would have one small obstacle to overcome. "There is no way to make a movie out of that book,'' says Wells, who was in San Francisco recently to discuss the film that she went ahead and wrote and directed anyway.

Despite the enormous popularity of Frances Mayes' book -- her account of the restoration of an Italian villa spent 126 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list -- it lacked even a wisp of a plot. Crammed with snippets of the history of her Italian village, the author's philosophical musings and even her favorite pasta recipes, the book rambled cheerfully through the Tuscan countryside.

So Wells threw out most of the book.

Then she made up almost all new characters for Mayes to befriend.

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