Ricky
Gervais earned enormous cred with The
Office and packed away a bit of additional investment with Extras, but to say he’s been squandering
it in features is a gross understatement. A Night At The Museum and For
Your Consideration do nothing for his resume, though no one would have
predicted the latter as an indifferent comedy bomb. And then there’s Stardust,
in which Gervais was easily the weakest link, and the upcoming Ghost
Town, which looks more like a companion piece to Just Like Heaven than
anything else.
So,
yeah, I’m worried when I see him writing, directing and starring in a would-be
Jim Carrey comedy like This Side of the Truth. It’s set in
a world without lying, and Gervais is the guy who learns how to lie, then
shortly puts the skill to work scoring a chick and finding professional success.
It’s looking like the target will be Jennifer Garner, who’s now in negotiations
to star.
This
doesn’t have to be as much of a disaster as it sounds on paper – Gervais as
director and co-writer (with Matthew Robinson) is a much better thing than,
say, Shawn Levy as director and anyone at all as his writers.