New romantic comedy Little Italy draws from Montreal screenwriter's Italian roots

Montreal screenwriter and playwright Steve Galluccio has long been inspired by his Italian roots.

While his new movie Little Italy isset in Toronto's Italian neighbourhood, it still has some flavour drawn from Galluccio's Montreal upbringing.

He saysthat whenever he visits a new city, his first question is always:"Do they have a Little Italy?"

The film itself is aRomeo and Juliet story featuring the two feudingfamilies cast asrival pizzeriaowners.

The film stars Hayden Christensen and Emma Roberts, along withAlyssa Milano and Danny Aiello.

• Hayden Christensen worked in a Toronto pizza shop to prepare for his latest film Little Italy

Galluccioco-wrote the movie with fellow Canadian actor and writer VinayVirmani.

"He sent me the synopsis. In the beginning it was called Pizza Wars. And I read it and said, 'I'm in. I want to do it,'" said Galluccio.

Virmani andGalluccioworked closely whilewriting and planning out the film, with the latter introducing two grandparent characters from therival families who also fall in love.

"You don't really see love stories between two older characters so Ithought it would be really sweet. And I love the result," he said.

Gallucciogrew up surrounded by Italian culture and tradition which has influenced much of his work, including Mambo Italiano (2003).

Virmani, on the other hand,is of Indian descent, butGallucciosaid he had no trouble relating to some of the universal themes in the script.

"The Italian culture, in his casethe Indian culture these are cultures that are steeped in tradition, infamily," Galluccio explained. "He totally got Italians."

Gallucciovisited the set of the film during production and was lucky enough to be on set during what he calls "one of the most important scenes of the movie" where the wholecast and crewwas gathered together.

"I got to meet all the actors, all the stars. It was really interesting because, when you have Emma Roberts andHayden Christensen, you also have paparazzi that are hiding all over the place. So it felt very Hollywood, it was very cool."

Little Italyopened inCanadian theatresAugust 24.

With files from CBC's All in a Weekend