Ricky Gervais has come on a long way since his first rise to fame with his 2001 sitcom, The Office. He’s gone onto produce a few more sitcoms, a podcast, travel documentaries and movies all for different content distributors from around the globe. Ricky Gervais is known for liking the freedom to create what he wants, when he wants and Netflix is naturally a good fit for him to do just that and Special Correspondents was born.
Gervais isn’t new to Netflix however. Netflix and Channel 4 in the UK managed to secure a deal which would bring his latest sitcom, Derek, to America carrying the Netflix Original branding and promoted as original content. The offbeat sitcom starred himself playing a simple man in his 40’s who lives and works in an elderly care home. Like most of Gervais’s work, it divided opinions from the get-go with some finding his performance offensive and others taking the series.
Derek after two seasons and a special, is now behind Gervais and he’s working with Netflix to produce a new movie that’s scheduled to be released on April 27th around the world simultaneously. The movie will be the first time Ricky has directed a movie in over 6 years.
The movie is loosely based upon the 2009 French movie Evoyes Tres Speciux where a radio journalist and his sound technician fake the news on a regular basis but this time gets them into deep trouble. They were supposed to be reporting directly from the frontline in a South American war but in actual fact they were making it up as they went along from a New York location. That all changes however when they’re reported missing and they actually have to take the journey down south to try and fix their wrong doings. It’s your typical escalating comedy movie where things get worse and worse the more the characters try and fix things.
Starring alongside Ricky Gervais is Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down), Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel), America Ferrera (Ugly Betty) and Kelly Macdonald (Brave). As mentioned above, it’ll be launching on Netflix to the masses on April 27th 2016 but if you’re looking for a bit more of Gervais to tide the time, then check out Derek and The Office as they’re both streaming on Netflix in most regions.
