Ricky Gervais is working his ass off lately. The Invention of Lying just ended its theatrical run, and he’s got another film, Cemetery Junction, coming next year. Now he’s entering the mobile phone market with PhoneShop. Gervais is editing the script for the series, which will air in the U.K. on Channel 4. Phil Bowker created, produced, and wrote the series. Bowker, who gave Gervais his first job on TV a decade ago, has produced several TV shows, but this will be his first run at writing and directing.  Little is known about PhoneShop, but it will take place at a cell phone store in a mall. The story (I’m guessing first episode) revolves around Christopher (Tom Bennett) who has to sell a cell phone by closing time to get a job at the store.  More on the series after the jump.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced Ricky Gervais will be hosting the 67^th Annual Golden Globes on Sunday, January 17^th, 2010. When asked why he agreed to host, Gervais said, “Not only is this the biggest Hollywood celebration of the industry which includes both film and TV, but also an environment where I feel I can get free reign as a host. I have resisted many other offers like this, but there are just some things you don’t turn down.”

While the Golden Globes are a joke and the winners are determined by who spends the most to wine and dine the Hollywood Foreign Press, with Gervais hosting, this just became must see TV.

With Ricky Gervais “The Invention of Lying” set for release October 2nd, we’ve been given some cool stuff to giveaway to help promote the film. If you haven’t seen the clips from the movie, “The Invention Of Lying” stars Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Fionnula Flanagan and Rob Lowe and it’s loaded with cameos from some of the biggest actors in Hollywood. As you might infer from the title, the film takes place in an alternate reality in which lying-even the concept of a lie-does not exist. But that all changes when Ricky Gervais tells the first one. Anyway, if you’d like some free stuff, hit the jump to see what we’ve got and how you can win:

A few days ago, I attended the press conference for Ricky Gervais’ new film “The Invention of Lying” at the Toronto Film Festival. While you usually have to wait for the stars to arrive, Ricky showed up a few minutes early and when I went to put my recorder down, I managed to ask him a number of questions about his next project with Stephen Merchant called “Cemetery Junction”. If you’re a fan of “Extras” or the British version of “The Office”, Ricky and Stephen Merchant created the shows together and “Cemetery Junction” is the first film they’ve written and directed together.

Anyway, he told me while filming only recently finished, they’ve already done a friends and family screening and it turned out quite well. He also called the movie his “Saturday Night Fever”. For more on the project and his new HBO animated series “The Ricky Gervais Show”, it’s after the jump:

Opening on October 2nd is the new Ricky Gervais movie “The Invention of Lying”. The film takes place in an alternate reality where lying — even the concept of a lie — does not even exist. Everyone from politicians to advertisers to the man and woman on the street speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of the consequences. But when a down-on-his-luck loser named Mark (Ricky Gervais) suddenly develops the ability to lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. The film also stars Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, and it also has guest appearances from some of the biggest names in Hollywood. So to help promote the film, we’ve been provided with 6 clips from the movie. They’re after the jump so take a look.

The first time I saw Ricky Gervais as David Brent in The Office (BBC), I thought he was a jackass. When I found out he also co-wrote and directed the series, I knew he was a genius (no lie). Lately, he’s been exploring the big screen. “The Invention of Lying” is his latest leading role, and he’s back to writing and directing as well. Gervais plays Mark, who lives in a world where there is no such thing as a lie…until he invents it and uses it to his advantage. A new poster and the theatrical trailer after the jump.

Warner Bros. has released a preview of their upcoming 2009 movies. In the preview, they’ve got updated synopsis’ along with new images from “Whiteout”, “Ninja Assassin”, “The Invention of Lying”, “The Informant!” and a few others. So if you’d like to see the new images and read what’s coming later this year (it’s a lot of great stuff), it’s all after the jump:

While this brief promo for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s  upcoming film “Cemetery Junction” tells you absolutely nothing about the film and is slightly misleading because it doesn’t actually star Gervais or Merchant (it stars Christian Cooke, Tom Hughes, and Jack Doolan as three blue-collar friends in a coming-of-age comedy), it does feature Ralph Fiennes.  As Gervais notes, Fiennes–not exactly known for his comedy.  Known more for dramas.  No amusing anecdotes from the set of “Schindler’s List”, sadly.  Nobody putting a little “Hook” lunchbox in the background of one of the concentration camps.  That’s a shame.  I guess “Schindler’s List” isn’t just missing subtlety, but easter eggs as well.

Hit the jump to check out the promo.  “Cemetery Junction” is slated to hit theatres some time next year.

There may be bigger comedies on the horizon (”Bruno”, “Funny People”) but Ricky Gervais’ “The Invention of Lying” (formerly known as “This Side of the Truth”) remains high on my radar as it should anyone that is fan of Gervais because while “Ghost Town” was surprisingly good, I feel like this is his big cinematic debut for US audiences.

Yahoo! Movies recently debuted the trailer for the film and it looks very…Gervais.  Based in a world where everyone always tells the truth, Gervais’ character discovers that he can lie.  If there’s only minor flaw that caught me in the trailer, it seems like Gervais’ character is astounded when folks tell him the truth.  Everyone else reacts deadpan and like it’s not a big deal (which makes sense) but Gervais reacts like he does whenever anyone said something stupid to him on “Extras”.  But perhaps these reaction shots are after he’s acquired his “lying” ability.  Check out the trailer after the jump.

From his official website, writer/director/actor Ricky Gervais has released details about his upcoming film, “Cemetery Junction” which began filming last Tuesday in London.  Co-written and co-directed by Gervais and Stephen Merchant (who also collaborated with Gervais on “The Office” and “Extras”), “Junction” tells the story of being trapped in a small town and dreaming of escape.

In 1970s England, three blue-collar friends, Freddie (Christian Cooke), Bruce (Tom Hughes), and Snork (Jack Doolan), spend their days joking, drinking, fighting and chasing girls.  When Freddie gets a new job as a door-to-door salesman and bumps into his old school sweetheart Julie (Felicity Jones), the gang are forced to make choices that will change their lives for ever.  The lesson of the film: never ever bump into old school sweethearts.  Avoid them at all costs.  In fact, just to be on the safe side, go and shut down your Facebook page.

“Cemetery Junction” also stars Gervais, Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, and Matthew Goode.  It’s set to hit theatres sometime in 2010.

You may have been wondering what happened to Ricky Gervais’ “This Side of the Truth”, a clever film about a man (played by Gervais) who inhabits a world where people only tell the truth until he discovers he can lie.  Well, the first thing you should know is that it’s no longer titled “This Side of the Truth” and is now called “The Invention of Lying”.  On his website, Gervais explains:

Oh yes, we’ve changed the title by the way. Just when Steve (Merchant) and I had decided on Cemetery Junction after not being allowed to mention anything to do with The Prudential, Matt (Robinson) and I decided to revert to the original title of our film - The Invention of Lying.

I loved This Side of the Truth but we worried that in all the marketing it would be difficult to try to get the concept across. If you go more “on the nose” with the title you can be more creative with trailers and posters. Anyway, here are the final verdicts;

The film previously known at The Man from The Pru is now called CEMETERY JUNCTION
The film previously known as This Side of the Truth is now called THE INVENTION OF LYING

Along with these title changes, Gervais revealed on Letterman that the film will be released on September 25th.  After the jump, check out the video of Gervais talking about the title change and the release date (it starts around the 8-minute mark).

There’s a reason that “The Ricky Gervais Show” is the most popular comedy podcast on the Internet: it’s hilarious. The popularity of Gervais and Merchant probably didn’t hurt in getting in noticed, but their endless jabs at co-host Karl Pilkington, who really is the star of the show.  If you’ve never heard the program, all you need to know is that Pilkington is like all of Gervais’ dumbest characters combined.  I secretly suspect that some traits of those characters were based of Pilkington.

Now Variety is reporting that HBO is picking up the series and turning it into 13 half-hour animated episodes set to debut in early 2010.  I can definitely see their conversations lending themselves to animated romps as Pilkington describes bizarre situations and truths that never happened.  Also, as Gervais makes sure to point out in every episode, Pilkington has a “a head like a fucking orange,” so that should be fun for the animators.

This will be Gervais’ third re-teaming with HBO after the network rebroadcast his BBC series “Extras” and aired his comedy special, “Ricky Gervais: Out of England”.  While I anxiously await this series, I’m even more excited for Gervais’ upcoming film, “The Invention of Lying” (formerly known as “This Side of the Truth”) which is slated to come out this fall.