It Had To Be a Movie (article) by Betty Jo Tucker on AuthorsDen

When my husband and I wrote our romantic memoir "It Had To Be Us," we decided to use the pen names of Harry and Elizabeth Lawrence. Why? Because the book was very personal and emotional.

We didn’t want people knowing we were the real people explaining how they reconciled after being divorced and estranged from each other for almost twenty years. We even changed the names of other characters in the book as well as the locations where everything took place. Our first surprise was that many readers figured out who Harry and Elizabeth were in real life! Our second surprise involved the number of people who mentioned that the book would make a good movie.

So when It Had To Be Us won First Place in the 2006 Hollywood Book Festival’s E-book category (where judges based their votes on its potential to be transferred to other media such as film or TV), we began to give that idea some consideration. And when we found that filmmaker Misha Zubarev was one of the folks who loved the book and thought it had cinematic potential, we became intrigued.

Misha decided to work on a short film with the assistance of V. Ulea, and the movie was completed early this year. The title was changed to Cake: A Love Story in order to enhance the film’s visual appeal. Although deviating from the book, this short film remains true to the spirit of our story about how romantic miracles can happen at any age. The entire cast and crew deserve praise for their wonderful work in bringing our true story to life on screen.

Cake: A Love Story is now being submitted to various national and international film festivals. As a longtime movie fan and film critic, I am excited that our filmed story has already received the following laurels:

2017 Award of Merit from IndieFEST (for being “a notable artistic and technical production”)

2017 Official Selection at the Toronto Shorts International Film Festival

2017 Official Selection at the First Annual NSAEN International Online Film Festival

Hopefully, this short film – an Ariella Media production -- will be available for the general public next year -- perhaps starting on Valentine’s Day, 2018.

(Article also posted in the 2017 October issue of the Colorado SENIOR BEACON.)

Web Site: Betty Jo Tucker/It Had To Be Us

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Reviewed by Vicki Nikolaidis

Reviewed on October 16, 2017

This is so exciting. I hope we will be able to see it in Greece!!

Reviewed by Ronald Hull

Reviewed on October 15, 2017

While I don't understand the fictionalizing of the characters by pseudonyms for true stories unless there is some hidden shame or other long buried family secrets, based on my own family's unwillingness to be a part of my writing sometimes, I understand why you did what you did.

Having read the story, I'm sure the film is as entertaining and lovely by its conclusion. Good luck with its continued success. Be careful, you might get famous. ;-)

Ron