The script was inspired by the 1990 Italian bestseller Io speriamo che me la cavo. (Me, Let's Hope I Make It). The book is a collection of essays written by the students of Italian primary school teacher Marcello D'Orta, who taught in Arzano, a suburb of Naples. In the essays the children describe many of the difficulties they and their families encounter (poverty, drugs, crime, the disrepair of their city, etc.). Io speriamo che me la cavo was also the original Italian title of the film.