http://chud.com/nextraimages/gabmuch.jpgMicrosoft
Word hates me for even typing the title in, but Gabriele Muccino’s Will
Smith-starring The Pursuit of Happyness was such a massive hit that the spell
checkers of the world will just have to suffer. The moderately budgeted film not
only brought in a considerable domestic and foreign take, but got Will Smith his
second Oscar nomination. And while it’s not entirely unfair to pin all of that
on the film’s triumph-of-the-Human-spirit storyline, well-timed release, and
Smith’s charisma and incessant promotion instead of Muccino’s direction, he
will benefit from it anyway.

Now, he’s
set to start work on Man and Wife, a love story
involving immigrants. Muccino
says that he wants to do it because it also addresses
US culture, but the love part of the
story is what he’ll be keeping to the forefront. Considering the year he’s had
with over here after a decade of smaller foreign films, you might expect this
to be a pretty positive look at the ole’ US of A. I’m just glad that we haven’t
become completely hated outside of our own borders given current global
conditions.

Speaking
of which, the writer of the script, Lorene Scafaria, also is working on Sweet
Relief
, the film about a real-life activist and aid worker in
Iraq who stops existing thanks to an
IED detonation. Kirsten Dunst is attached to star in that film. Muccino’s Man
and Wife
will start shooting in
Brooklyn this summer.