Ricky Gervais to direct first feature :: Film & TV News :: Articles

Spring 2008 will mark Ricky Gervais' first moment in the director's chair, when he stars in and co-writes (with Matt Robinson) This Side of the Truth.

The film will be set in a contemporary society similar to our own, except where no one has ever told a lie. Actually, maybe that's not so similar after all. Gervais plays a performer who tells the first lie and uses his ability to say whatever he needs to for his own personal gain, though perhaps not in the way audiences would expect.

"My character works in the film industry, where actors are really readers who tell completely factual stories," Gervais told Variety. "My character's a loser who's about to lose his job, and who's lumbering through the 1300s. All he's got to work with is the black death. But once he lies and pretends he's found lost stories he becomes the greatest storyteller in the world."

It's nice to see a new creative project of Gervais' after just wrapping up Extras. Let's hope that this is the beginning of Gervais remapping the territory of film comedies in the same way he's done with television.

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