Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s Cemetery Junction Trailer
Despite being a big fan of Ricky Gervais, I still have yet to see The Invention of Lying, which marks his second major starring role on the big screen, and the first film that he co-directed himself. Part of the reason I’ve been holding off is because I’m afraid of being disappointed, just like I was with Ghost Town, a fairly conventional rom-com that did not capture much of his usual wit and awkward comedy. Nevertheless, I’ve still been holding out hope for his next film Cemetery Junction, which re-teams him with his long-time writing partner and co-creator of The Office, Stephen Merchant.
This week the first official trailer for Cemetery Junction has arrived online, and it certainly does not look like either of Ricky’s previous films. In fact, he’s barely in it at all, and it carries a much more serious, dramatic tone throughout. The movie is a period piece, set in the ’70s, about three friends who are stuck in boring jobs in a small town in England. When Freddie starts working as a door-to-door salesmen, he reconnects with his high school sweetheart, and is forced to make some tough choices that will change his life forever. The main stars are Christian Cooke, Tom Hughes, Jack Doolan and Felicity Jones, but Ricky Gervais, Ralph Fiennes, and Emily Watson all have supporting roles. Check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think. Cemetery Junction hits theatres in the U.K. on April 9th; no word on a U.S. release as of yet.
Comments (9)
Sean, I would recommend against Invention of Lying but you should obviously see it for yourself. I thought it was such a great concept but it ended up being really annoying. It had it’s moments but over all it was badly done.
Posted by Jackson on February 4th, 2010I didn’t see The Invention of Lying either. Ricky should be barred from doing major projects without Steve (And considering ‘The Tooth Fairy’ vice versa!). I think their personalities compliment one another well. Based on this trailer I wouldn’t say the movie looks fascinating, but it looks like it’s similar to the kind of tone they’re great at establishing. I confess I have cried watching both The Office and Extras. My only concern is their lack of cinematic style.
Posted by Kim on February 4th, 2010I agree that is a concern, although they recruited the Academy Award-nominated cinematographer of Elizabeth for this movie. (He also did Fred Claus and The Haunted Mansion.)
Posted by Sean on February 4th, 2010The thing that worries me is that it seems like they’re doing a love story. Invention of Lying was a tame, stereotypical love story and it was pretty fucking horrible, despite Gervais co-writing and directing. They talked alot about movies being grander scale and taking an audience on an emotional journey, if they mean stereotypical romance, it might be bad.
Both their shows had no love story, there was a relationship in The Office which I admit was awesome, but it was in the background and subdued. The one in Invention of Lying was roll-your-eyes level bad.
Posted by Henrik on February 4th, 2010I disagree, I think Gervais was just crapping out with the Invention of Lying, like Simon Pegg did in Run Fatboy Run. Rick and Steve often said that The Office was really about the love story between Tim and Dawn. The trick was having it be so understated so it played out so genuinely, like the fake-documentary version of Lost in Translation. Despite The Invention of Lying and Ghost Town being so fekin cliche, Ricky often cites very non-stereotypical romance movies as his inspiration, like Annie Hall and The Apartment.
I’ll ignore that bit about ‘The Haunted Mansion’, and instead be glad the cinematographer worked on Match Point. I gather they want to put much more effort into the look of this movie. They’ve not only hired a big time director of photography, but a big time costume designer. This makes me happy.
Posted by Kim on February 4th, 2010Considering the hilarious teaser trailer they did for this film it is a bit surprising that it seems to be a drama first and foremost. But I’ll wait and see.
Posted by swarez on February 4th, 2010Yeah he cites early Woody Allen, and he also states that Ghost Town is something he thinks Jimmy Stewart could star in, but the movies fall flat on their face trying to reach anything on that level.
I definitely don’t see Tim and Dawn’s love story being the center of The Office, though it did provide a needed emotional impact in the end, and a great one at that.
I can see Ghost Town being crapped out, but Invention of Lying? He wrote and directed it. That’s quite a crap to take. The guy he did it with, Matt Robinson, seems like a huge asshole with poor taste and no writing skills though, so maybe he was responsible for all the shitty stuff, but I still think Ricky Gervais would stand up for that movie 100%.
Posted by Henrik on February 4th, 2010He must know that The Invention of Lying is bad, but no actor or filmmaker will admit their latest movie sucks, unless they’re looking for a swift end to their career. It’s kind of tragic that he’s had to play a real life Andy Millman to break into American cinema. ‘Lying’ probably started out as an ambitious and courageous project but turned into ‘When the Whistle Blows’.
Posted by Kim on February 4th, 2010I’ve heard Gervais interviewed more recently, and it seems that he’s much more interested in doing drama than comedy (as this trailer will atest!). Viewed in this way, I don’t think Ghost Town was a bad movie at all. Invention of Lying was crap, but from Gervais’ point of view, he probably thought it was decent stab at addressing some interesting themes.
Anyway, the most interesting British comedy this year will surely be Chris Morris’ first film, which showed at Sundance I believe. And if you don’t know who Chris Morris is, you really should…
Posted by Liney on February 5th, 2010Leave a Reply