Fans of the original, British version of The Office are in for a treat: David Brent is coming back — to the big screen.
Ricky Gervais, who co-created and starred in the mockumentary style sitcom that aired on BBC — and was remade by NBC in 2005, to enormous success — has announced that his famous character (who served as a prototype for Steve Carell’s Michael Scott) will appear in a new BBC-backed film called Life on the Road.
The movie, which begins shooting next year, will follow Gervais’ Brent as he goes on the road 15 years after leaving Werner Hogg in an attempt to fulfill his life-long dream of becoming a rock star.
“He thinks it’ll be like Scorsese doing the Rolling Stones, but we’ll show the full horror,” Gervais told the Guardian about his character’s travails in the film. “He’s had to take two weeks off work and cash in his pension, because the session musicians in the band are costing him more than he’s getting in ticket sales.”
Fans of the original series will already be familiar with David Brent’s pursuits in the music world. In the first season of The Office, Brent hijacks an office training session with his original songs.
Then, in the show’s 2003 Christmas Special, viewers saw the results of David Brent’s first disastrous attempt at launching a music career.
Since the series ended, Gervais has appeared as Brent in a series of guitar tutorials on YouTube.
[Guardian]
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