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Ricky Gervais' film debut as both writer and director has been cast and has a blog.

Gervais has announced a pretty kickass cast including: John Hodgman, Tina Fey, Christopher Guest, Jeffrey Tambor join Louis CK, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Garner. And Ricky himself.

I really hope Louis CK can break his string of bad movie luck with this one. He's an amazing stand-up and overall awesome guy so I hope this one will turn out well.

Patrick Stewart will be narrating the film.

Oedipax wrote:I really hope Louis CK can break his string of bad movie luck with this one. He's an amazing stand-up and overall awesome guy so I hope this one will turn out well.

I hope this isn't a jab at Pootie Tang

patrick wrote:

Oedipax wrote:I really hope Louis CK can break his string of bad movie luck with this one. He's an amazing stand-up and overall awesome guy so I hope this one will turn out well.

I hope this isn't a jab at Pootie Tang

Not at all. I meant stuff like I Think I Love My Wife and his recent cameo in Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins. Even Pootie Tang, though - I love it, I know a lot of other people do as well - but its bombing didn't do his career any favors, and I'd like to see him directing more movies.

The trailer has arrived.

Not even a smile

A bit of a smile, but no lips parted except to sigh at the end.

I had a few smiles, but I refuse to believe that a Ricky Gervais-written movie could be so ho-hum.

Maybe, instead of the normal "show all the funny jokes in the trailer" routine, Focus decided to get rid of all the unfunny/mediocre jokes. Maybe? [-o<

I like the premise but Gervais is insufferable and that trailer is horrible. Also why is a man with an English accent in America? Either attempt an accent or set it in England.

knives wrote:Also why is a man with an English accent in America? Either attempt an accent or set it in England.

What?

I remember when The Office first appeared (about ten years ago), the trailers made it look like absolute shit, and it was only when it was repeated that word of mouth made it a huge hit - the style of comedy just didn't lend itself to being excerpted and sound-bited. Indeed, you really had to take the time to sit through an entire episode in order to get anything out of it.

This trailer is admittedly terrible, and has obviously been crafted to appeal to the same audience who lapped up Ghost Town (which, to be fair, also wasn't as bad as the trailers made it look), but there's every reason to assume it doesn't accurately represent Gervais's film.

That said, Extras was getting awfully preachy towards the end, and his last stand-up act was pretty bad, so this could go either way.

Was Ghost Town a hit in the UK?

I hope so, it was unfairly ignored here - it was certainly much funnier and more charming than it ever should have been.

mfunk9786 wrote:I hope so, it was unfairly ignored here - it was certainly much funnier and more charming than it ever should have been.

I agree. I caught it a couple of months ago and loved it. Of course, it helps if you're a fan of Gervais' comedy style. Aside from that, Greg Kinnear was flawless. Very funny script by Koepp too.

My impression is that Ghost Town wasn't exactly a hit, but it got good reviews and undoubtedly did much better than most TV-star-to-cinema transitions (ever heard of Sex Lives of the Potato Men, Three and Out, Lesbian Vampire Killers...?) I was surprised by how genuinely funny it was, and how well the unprepossessing Gervais managed to fill the lead role. It was a poor man's Groundhog Day, but better than most poor men's Groundhog Days. And hopefully, since Lying is a project Gervais himself has been working on for a long time (I believe it started out as the slilghtly different 'Brain Jail'), it will be better. Just let's ignore that trailer and hope for the best, eh?

Sloper wrote:This trailer is admittedly terrible, and has obviously been crafted to appeal to the same audience who lapped up Ghost Town (which, to be fair, also wasn't as bad as the trailers made it look), but there's every reason to assume it doesn't accurately represent Gervais's film.

Yeah, the clips look like they could easily be the closest things to mass-appealing moments snatched out of long bouts of Gervais' patented representations of painfully and darkly awkward social interaction. Slap on some ridiculous 'Imagine That'-style narration and you've got yourself a trailer that's fun for the whole family!

Yeah, that trailer does appear to be pandering to the PG-13 crowd, and I certainly hope he indulges some of his blacker, self-immoltating tendencies. (That being said, I enjoyed the gentler tone and execution Ghost Town more than I suspected I would. It was especially heartening to see Leoni excel -- she has a very distinct comedic talent that has never been adequately served in Hollywood, and has not been seen since her glory days of the short-lived series The Naked Truth.)

I agree that Extras did get a tad preachy toward the end of its run, but at its cringeworthy zenith I'd put it right up there with The Office (Jensen and Merchant alone were worth the price of admission, and some of the cameos -- Winslet, Rigg, Radcliffe, and McKellen, especially -- were downright priceless).

My only reservation is that Merchant is not his writing partner on this project -- I am beginning to suspect that his contribution to Gervais' brand / shtick (and its appeal to me) is larger than I previously thought. Compare those Guardian podcasts to Gervais' last stand-up and you'll fully understand what I am suggesting.

In any event, I'm looking forward to this one.

US trailer.