Pages tagged “ricky gervais”

Release Date: Sept. 19

Director: David Koepp

Writers: David Koepp and John Kamps

Cinematographer: Fred Murphy

Starring: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, Kristen Wiig

Studio/Run Time: Paramount Pictures, 102 mins.

Unless it was from his abbreviated appearances in films like Night at the Museum and For Your Consideration, or HBO’s award winning series Extras, most Americans are unfamiliar with the face of Englishman Ricky Gervais, despite being very familiar with his work as co-creator of the hit series The Office, both the American and British versions. Ghost Town will likely change that. Writer/director David Koepp has provided Gervais with the perfect vehicle for his quirky, sardonic wit as he plays the tactless and socially inept dentist Bertram Pincus who only wants to be left alone.

Ricky Gervais is a demanding director. He’s a man of all seasons who likes his scenes fresh and his wasabe strong. Yet he has a more refined side, too; he drinks milky tea and prefers dishes that used to have less legs rather than more. The crabs somewhere around week eight just didn’t cut it. What’ll Mr. Gervais be having this evening? Why, chicken and ‘mash. It does a body good.

“I consider Gervais a handsome man because he gives people rides in horse-drawn carriages,” co-star John Hodgman writes on the blog for Gervais' directorial debut, This Side of the Truth. “I consider him a genius because he does it FOR MONEY. Also, he has a brilliant comic mind. His eyepatch is hilarious, and not just for the usual reasons (lack of eye).”

Things seem to be going well based on the week-by-week rundown on his internationally acclaimed blog. The Christopher Guest bit alone could make the film worth it. Plus, since we last wrote on the status of the film, Patrick Stewart has been confirmed to narrate, Louis CK shaved off his beard for the part and the largest scene of the film, which includes hundreds of extras, is now in the can.

Most recently, Gervais received the LA Bafta for his episode of Extras that featured Daniel Radcliffe. His eighth Bafta to date, Gervais keeps them on his mantel next to the casualties of the ongoing Nerf battle (chipped vases, teeth and the like). Pictured above is Gervais, Tina Fey and Rob Lowe barreling toward the camera, thirsty for foam-dart vengeance.

(On an only-barely-tangentially-related note, if you've visited Paste HQ in the last few weeks, the photo above is hauntingly familiar. Nerf battles run rampant around these parts. Rampant!)

In other news concerning the man who foisted The Office on the world, Variety recently compiled a list of the next Ricky Gervaises. He discussed the precociousness of this amusing title on the blog.

“I don't think that I'm quite done being the first Ricky Gervais yet,” he writes. “I haven't started my US tour yet. Ghost Town, my first lead in a Hollywood film isn't even released until September. I'm halfway through my directorial debut. If these are all flops no one will want to be the next Ricky fucking Gervais.”

Perhaps, but based on the behind the scenes notes he makes, filming sounds like it is going incredibly well. To read more about the wasabe incident, Pat Benatar or why the sky is blue, get bloggy at your leisure.

Related links:
RickyGervais.com
Ghost Town on IMDb
News: Universal obtains Gervais’ This Side of the Truth

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Early reports have indicated that Grand Theft Auto IV is attempting to bring a whole new level of realism to the GTA series, but things just got a little bit more serious(ly funny). Kotaku reports via ShortList that Ricky Gervais will be playing a part in the upcoming game, not just voicing a character but rather playing some embodiment of himself.

"Ricky Gervais . . . will even perform three-minute skits of never-before-heard material and classic Fame gags in the digital comedy club in which you find him," writes the article. Still unclear is whether the character will literally be "Ricky Gervais" or just a role like in The Office or Extras. In any case they made him wear a motion capture suit in order to render him just right.

"I got to wear a tight lycra suit as part of the digital process," Gervais is quoted. "Unfortunately they captured the whole horror, except I look slightly tougher." See, Rockstar is so committed to realism that it insists on motion capture even when it's completely unnecessary.

The article also notes that the comedy club isn't the only place Gervais will be found in the game, but that the other roles he'll play are still under wraps.

GTA IV will be released for the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 on April 29.

Related links:
This Side of the Truth Blog
GTA IV on Rock Star Games
News: Gervais to direct first feature

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This Side of the Truth, Ricky Gervais’ feature film debut, has been acquired by Universal Pictures International, Variety reports. Warner Brothers already has the rights to stateside distribution.

The comedy will be co-directed by Matthew Robinson, and is slated to begin filming in Boston on April 14. Both Robinson and Gervais wrote the script.

Gervais, who created The Office (new episode of the U.S. version tonight!), has written children’s books and is hilarious in general, will star in the movie. Cinematical reports that the plot (which has apparently changed substantially since the film was first announced), follows Gervais as a history professor who somehow "invents" deception, then uses it to spruce up class lectures and get women. Potentially, capers ensue.

Once upon a time when Jennifer Garner was the formidable Sidney Bristow, Gervais played a cameo role as a freelance bomb maker. This time Garner is set to co-star, as is Louis C.K. and Rob Lowe. Christopher Guest, Tina Fey, John Hodgman, Jeffrey Tambor and Jonah Hill will also appear. Additionally, Gervais mentions on his blog the possibility of Patrick Stewart narrating, though it's hard, sometimes, to tell when he’s joking.

Related links:
This Side of the Truth Blog
The Office on NBC.com
Paste: Gervais to direct first feature

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

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.

Related links:
Ricky Gervais on IMDB
Ricky Gervais' website
This Side of the Truth press release on Variety

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At the Live Earth concert on Saturday, Chris Rock and Ricky Gervais announced their upcoming buddy cop film Badge Buddies. That's right, Badge Buddies. Well at least it’s forthright.

Gervais summarized the plot, saying that he stars as a cop whose old partner retires, making him switch to a partner who is an ex-gang member. Chris Rock commented on this saying, “I wouldn’t call it a buddy cop flick because we’re not really buddies.” You've never actually seen a buddy cop movie, have you, Rock? “It’s kind of Rush Hour meets Shakespeare in Love,” he adds. Nevermind, where could they go wrong creating a wisecracking kung-fu/historically inaccurate biopic? Oh, right.

The ethnically mismatched comedy will be shot sometime in 2008 and, to add more mismatch to the mix, Gervais may be playing as a homosexual. According to Rock and Gervais, there’s also a twist at the end that they don’t wish to give away yet. Could it be that the cops learn that, despite their backgrounds, they’re not so different after all? That would sure be unexpected.

Then again, there was a certain glimmer in the eyes of the funnymen that suggested, perhaps, that the whole thing is a gag.

Regardless, with any luck the possible film will make boatloads of money along the lines of Gervais’ last paycheck, Night at the Museum, and allow him to return to casually creating another groundbreaking comedy series. It could also allow Rock to return to… umm, creating edgy 90s-era stand-up and voicing animals for Dreamworks’ CGI films.

Related links:
Youtube recording of the announcement
Ricky Gervais' website
Chris Rock's website

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