Audrey Ann Wells (''née'' Lederer; January 25, 1960 – October 4, 2018) was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. Her 1999 film ''

Guinevere Guinevere ( ; cy, Gwenhwyfar ; br, Gwenivar, kw, Gwynnever), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First me ...

'' won the

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award Waldo Miller Salt (October 18, 1914 – March 7, 1987) was an American screenwriter who won Academy Awards for both '' Midnight Cowboy'' and '' Coming Home''. Early life and career Salt was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Winifred ...

Early life

Wells was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, to Austrian-American psychiatrist Wolfgang Lederer and Romanian-American psychologist Alexandra Botwin Lederer; her parents fled World War II-era Europe. She had Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish ancestry.

Career

Wells worked as a disc jockey at San Francisco jazz radio station KJAZ FM. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. She wrote a number of successful screenplays and directed three for which she had created the script. Her works were primarily

comedies Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term origin ...

and

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typica ...

s. Among her films are ''

The Truth About Cats & Dogs ''The Truth About Cats & Dogs'' is a 1996 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann and written by Audrey Wells. It stars Janeane Garofalo, Uma Thurman, Ben Chaplin and Jamie Foxx. The story is a modern reinterpretation of the 1897 ...

'' (1996) and '' Under the Tuscan Sun'' (2003), both of which she also produced. Her 1999 film ''

'' won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Wells also co-wrote the script for the comedy '' The Game Plan''.

Death

Wells died of cancer on October 4, 2018. The film ''

The Hate U Give ''The Hate U Give'' is a 2017 young adult novel by Angie Thomas. It is Thomas's debut novel, expanded from a short story she wrote in college in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant. The book is narrated by Starr Carter, a 16-year ...

'', for which she wrote the screenplay, was released the next day. She is survived by her husband and daughter. She also wrote the screenplay for the 2020

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

/ Pearl Studio animated feature '' Over the Moon'', which was dedicated to her memory.

Filmography

* ''

'' (1996), writer/executive producer * ''

George of the Jungle ''George of the Jungle'' is an American animated television series produced and created by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who also created '' The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show''. The character George was inspired by the story of Tarzan and a cartoon ch ...

'' (1997), co-screenwriter * ''

'' (1999), writer/director (feature directorial debut) * '' Disney's The Kid'' (2000), writer * '' Under the Tuscan Sun'' (2003), screen story writer/screenwriter/director/producer * '' Shall We Dance?'' (2004), screenwriter * '' The Game Plan'' (2007), co-story writer * ''The Fugees'' (2012), director * '' A Dog's Purpose'' (2017), co-screenwriter * ''

'' (2018), screenwriter (film released posthumously) * '' Abominable'' (2019), Additional screenplay materal with Irena Brigull and William Davies (film released posthumously) * '' Over the Moon'' (2020), writer (film released posthumously) - The film was dedicated to her memory.

References

External links