One of the (presumably) many benefits of being Ricky Gervais is that lots and lots of incredibly talented folks are hot to work with you. Just look at the guest star roster on Extras (Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Robert De Niro, etc.). And look at how much fun they seem to have had doing the show. Who wouldn’t want to collaborate with a genius like Gervais?
Now you can add Louis C.K. and Jonah Hill to the list of the enamored, as they’ve just joined the cast of Gervais’s feature directing debut, This Side of Truth. The film stars Gervais as an average joe suffering through a dull existence in an alternate reality where no one lies. Gervais’s lot improves when he discovers the power of the fib, which, of course, he uses as a means of banging his dream girl (Jennifer Garner). C.K. will play Gervais’s “loser best friend” (not the most exciting character description, but I’m sure the messianic C.K. will riff gold out of it), while Hill’s been cast as a chronically depressed neighbor.
Gervais is sharing directing and writing duties on This Side of Truth with Matt Robinson (who has no prior IMDb credits). Lynda and Oly Obst are producing for MRC, with Warner Brothers distributing. Production is scheduled to begin in April, so expect to have a laugh with this one sometime in the first quarter of 2009.