Truth or Dare with Ricky Gervais

Scott Von Doviak — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:00:00 GMT

We’ve seen writer-directors and even writer-director-actors before, but it may be time to add a new hyphenate to the filmmaking glossary: writer-director-actor-blogger. Ricky Gervais is sharing the writing and directing duties on his debut feature film This Side of the Truth, and his co-stars include Tina Fey, Christopher Guest, Jeffrey Tambor, Rob Lowe and Jennifer Garner. But he’s handling the blogging himself at his own website, rickygervais.com.

Plotwise, the movie sounds rather high concept in comparison to Gervais’s brilliantly squirmy television work in The Office and Extras. “It's a contemporary world rather like our own, but in which the human race has never evolved the ability to lie,” blogs Gervais. “I play a loser who discovers one day that he, and only he has the ability to lie. In a world where no one even understands the concept of lying, everyone totally believes, without question anything I tell them. I can say anything at all and they accept this as the gospel truth. I can get anything I want. Or can I?”

Gervais has already posted a number of pre-production videos, including his close inspection of the detailed testicle work on a scale model boar, and he offers a preview of a future project: “In the film I'm writing with Steve Merchant I'm playing a man with a bad back who sits in an arm chair all day. If I can hide a toilet in the armchair I will have created the perfect acting job for myself.”

Trailer Roundup: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Paul Clark — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:00:00 GMT

I enjoyed the original Hellboy movie well enough, but I wasn't exactly clamoring for a second installment, even with the return of director Guillermo Del Toro. However, seeing the trailer I've got to say- Hellboy II looks pretty darn cool. Not incidentally, it also looks more like a Del Toro film than the original film, with more creepy-crawlies and dreamlike imagery. And I find it sort of amazing that Universal is actually playing up the Pan's Labyrinth connection- who would have guessed that a studio would be using a subtitled movie to sell one of their big summer blockbusters? Also, if this trailer is any indication, the boring-ass agent from the original won't be returning for the sequel, which would be an improvement. Not sure if it's actually true, but I can hope, can't I?

The Screengrab : jeffrey tambor

Truth or Dare with Ricky Gervais

Trailer Roundup: Hellboy II: The Golden Army