Smith's tyke joins dad

The son also rises in 'Happyness'

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Smith

Jaden Smith, the 7-year-old son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, has been set by Columbia Pictures to make his screen starring debut in the Gabrielle Muccino-directed "The Pursuit of Happyness."

The youth gets a start in a role he will be comfortable with: He'll play the son of Smith's character.

Scripted by Steve Conrad ("The Weather Man"), pic stars Will Smith as a marginally employed salesman who gets custody of his son just as he is about to begin a career-making stock brokerage intern program.The film is produced by James Lassiter and Todd Black in a co-production between Overbrook and Escape Artists. Shooting begins right away for a 2006 release.