Bellissimo, magnifico, fantastico.” Roberto Benigni springs high in the air on a marionette stage near Rome and claps his feet together. He breaks into superlatives, barely able to contain himself, to convey his passion for the world’s most famous puppet.

Two years ago the actor-writer-director had a huge success with Life is Beautiful, the controversial but oddly endearing film about a another father and son in a Second World War concentration camp. He was first spotted leaping up and down at that year’s Cannes festival awards and the Oscars ceremony. Now he has ploughed the profits from Life is Beautiful into realising his lifelong dream of bringing the story of Pinocchio to the big screen in full, restoring what Disney took out.

We can forgive him for being a little over-excited: in this most expensive of all Italian productions, budgeted at pound;27.5 million, he not only plays Pinocchio but he has to take care of the script (working with his friend Vincenzo Cerami, screenwriter on Life is Beautiful), direction, locations, set, everything. And it’s all his own money.

It’s not clear yet whether the film - still shooting, amid secrecy - will reach the UK before the end of 2002. When it does, its appeal is likely to slot somewhere between that of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and The Lord of the Rings.

Benigni’s studio, Melampo Cinematografica, is in a disused factory near Terni, an hour and a half from Rome. It is where Benigni filmed sections of Life is Beautiful - although the building was then only a shell. Now it is a fully functioning studio, which will eventually be used by other directors.

Today, though, the set for the Blue Fairy’s birthday party is resplendent with cakes in the shape of blue swans, golden money glued on to golden eggs and flamboyant satin caps. “We are trying to create a child’s fantasy of the perfect party: elaborate yet crude,” explains the film’s producer, Elda Ferri. “We bought thousands of metres of fabric, which we personally dyed in the original way, because many colours of the 19th century are difficult to find. Nothing has been hired - everything has been made for the movie.”

Benigni is keen to invest in Italian traditions, so all the props have been painstakingly crafted by Italian artisans, whose skills are increasing threatened by newer technologies. The director has set up a studio workshop where the older craftspeople can pass on their skills to apprentices.

Special effects include a 50-metre long shark (Disney turned the shark of the original story into a whale). And Benigni’s crew has been spotted filming in the Czech Republic.

It is perhaps no surprise that the fiercely Italian actor-writer-director would be drawn to the highly moral story of a naughty wooden puppet-boy, who only becomes human when he sees the error of his ways. He collects Pinocchio figures, memorabilia and editions of the original 1883 novel, written by Carlo Lorenzini under the pen-name Collodi.

The writer was born into a poor family in Florence in 1826 (Benigni is also from Tuscany). He began writing in satirical papers, which were banned in Italy under Austrian rule. After translating the fairy tales of Charles Perrault into Italian in 1875, he devoted the remaining 15 years of his life to writing children’s books.

He wrote Pinocchio as a serial for a Rome children’s newspaper in 1881, and published it in book form two years later. Today, it is the most translated book worldwide after the Bible and the Koran.

“Pinocchio’s world is a magic world,” says Benigni. “A world of fire-eaters, talking crickets, carriages pulled by mice, and gigantic sea-monsters. This is one of the most difficult roles I’ve ever played, being a mixture of Don Quixote, Faust and Hamlet. The whole history of the world can be found in the plot.

“The best thing is that Pinocchio is a bearer of light and beauty. He has changed me and the way I look at the world. Even my dreams have changed at night. He touches us, as all great characters do. He makes us laugh, cry, despair, tear our hair out and want to rush out and embrace the whole world.

“He represents the unquenchable human spirit, the lust for life, the carefree, glorious pursuit of all that is brightest, lightest and best in this world. There is nothing more seductive than the prospect of being able to live a dream. Or being able to dream a life. As children do all over the world.

“I’m old enough to play Geppetto, but to get the chance to play Pinocchio at my age is a gift from the gods. I’m quite overcome.” Look out for a shock-headed director leaping up and down at awards ceremonies next year.

FULLY ARTICULATED

For Italians, Pinocchio represents Mr Toad, Peter Rabbit and Just William all rolled into one, writes Geraldine Brennan. But even in Italy children turn to Disney’s 1940 film rather than Collodi’s original novel, although the US animated treatment of what some Italians regard as a sacred text has few adult fans.

The story sums up the traditional values of rural Italy (in particular Tuscany) in the late 19th century, says Elena Paruolo, a lecturer at the University of Salerno, who is writing a book about adaptations of Pinocchio.

“It reflects the way Italians viewed children - especially lower-class children - during that period. They considered that children had the same emotions, needs and, to some extent, responsibilities as their parents. They were miniature adults who had to face the trials of the world.

“Disney’s Pinocchio is the personification of childhood innocence. The outside world is presented as sinister and evil: children had best not enter it. So Collodi’s idea of making one’s own experiences on the road to adult life is missing.

“Benigni’s film is creating great interest because it seems it will have something to offer an adult audience as well as children. But no doubt there will be controversy over whether he has delivered the Pinocchio Italians expect.”

The more successful UK adaptations of Pinocchio tend to reflect the slapstick and spectacle of the puppet’s adventures. Recent UK stage versions have appeared from Michael Rosen (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre last summer) and Marcello Magni (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, Christmas 2000).

The latest illustrated edition of ‘Pinocchio’ was published by Chronicle Books (distributed in the UK by Ragged Bears) in autumn 2001. With a text based on the 1892 translation and examples of 30 artists’ work over more than a century (so Pinocchio changes his appearance between pages), it’s more suitable for adults than children.