Director applies neorealist touch to Will Smith film

- Los Angeles, June 2 - One of Italy's most talented young directors is hoping his European take on the American Dream will be the making of star actor Will Smith's next film .

Gabriele Muccino has spent the last 10 months in the United States filming The Pursuit of Happyness, a rags-to-riches drama featuring not only America's box-office magnet Smith but also his seven-year-old son Jaden .

Shot in San Francisco, the 60-million-dollar picture revolves around the true-life story of Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman who dragged himself and his child out of poverty to become a hugely wealthy stock broker .

The Columbia Pictures movie hits the screens next December, marking a rare mega-budget American debut for an Italian director .

Muccino, who has won a string of awards for his past work including Italy's equivalent of the Oscar, told ANSA here that his approach to the all-American tale was largely inspired by Italian neorealist cinema .

A postwar movement which aimed at the realistic depiction of the poorer classes, neorealism is synonymous with the name of directing legend Vittorio De Sica .

Muccino said he had taken much from De Sica's two most poignant masterpieces about poverty, Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thieves, 1948) and Umberto D. (1952) .

"Fans of these films will find a lot in The Pursuit of Happyness... I love De Sica and tried to make my film true in the same way," said the 39-year-old Roman director .

He said this influence, as well as his European background, had allowed him to portray the precariousness of the American social system in ways which a home-born director might have overlooked or been immune to. "It's a very daring story about the American struggle, about survival in a country where it's very difficult to stay afloat," Muccino said .

"There's a very thin line here and you have to fight to stay on the right side of it because you can find yourself in poverty in a second," he said .

"It's like the old Far West, nothing much has changed and everything is down to the individual. You have to find your own gold mine. The Dream is to aim high," said Muccino, who has made four previous feature films, all in Italian .

The Pursuit of Happyness is set in the early 1980s and tells the story of Chris, a self-employed medical scanning machine salesman who barely manages to make ends meet. Chris' situation deteriorates rapidly after his wife walks out, leaving him as the sole carer of their five-year-old boy. He takes on a job as an internee at a stockbrokerage firm, seeing it as his last shot at a better life. The only problem is that the six-month internship is unpaid work and the prospects of being hired at the end are very slim. As Chris fights to shine at his job while selling his remaining scanners, he and his child are thrown out of their home and end up trailing from one homeless shelter to the next, at one point reduced to sleeping in a public lavatory .

Nonetheless Chris keeps going and is rewarded at the end of the six months when his firm picks him as the one internee worthy of a job .

Muccino was full of praise for Smith, describing him as "the most sensitive and talented actor I have ever worked with" .

He said Smith, who is eyeing an Oscar with this dramatic role, had given his best performance yet .

But Smith's son could steal the show with a debut which the studios are convinced will win the public's heart .

Muccino said he picked Jaden after seeing more than 300 children .

"I just couldn't find the right one - they were all cute but I wanted someone truer. I asked Will if he minded me auditioning Jaden. He was flattered... and Columbia was very excited after seeing him. He was perfect," he said .

Muccino said he was particularly pleased with the way he had managed to develop the father-son relationship on screen, stressing that the result was very moving and far removed from the script he was originally given to work with .

The director said he could still hardly believe his luck in being chosen to make the film .

He said Will Smith had seen his 2001 hit L'Ultimo Bacio (The Last Kiss) and had loved it .

"He got in touch with me and sent me The Pursuit script. I was in total disbelief and thought it was a waste of time. But then I met Will and realised he was a big fan of my work," he said .

He said Columbia initially balked at the idea of him directing the movie because he was relatively unknown in the US but that Smith fought for him and brought them round .

Muccino's biggest success to date has been The Last Kiss, a bitter portrayal of today's responsibility-shy thirty-somethings. A smash hit, the sleekly shot movie clinched Muccino an Italian Oscar for best direction and went on to win the Audience Award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival .

The film was so popular that an American remake directed by Tony Goldwyn is set to come out soon .

As for Muccino's future, the director said that although he missed Italy, he had "adapted well" in America and was set to make more films here .

"The thought of working here and bringing my ideas to the American film industry is very stimulating. Also, if you have the big stars, it means your films really will get seen around the world and that's something that mustn't be underestimated," the director concluded .