Ricky Gervais off to Ghost Town

So far, The Office/Extras comedy god Ricky Gervais has kept his film work to small roles alongside friends such as Ben Stiller (Night At The Museum) and Christopher Guest (For Your Consideration). And while he’s ventured towards more of a starring role in pigeon ‘toon Valiant, that was A) comic relief B) just a voice and C) a rubbish film.

But now it looks like he’s stretching his wings (no pigeons this time) with the upcoming Stardust and the freshly announced Ghost Town.

He’s agreed to star with Little Miss Sunshine’s Greg Kinnear in DreamWorks’ new romantic comedy, which David Koepp is directing. The writer of War Of The Worlds is no stranger to directing, though his efforts – including the solid A Stir Of Echoes and the dodgy Secret Window - haven’t exactly set the box office alight.

Still, his old mucker Steven Spielberg liked his script (co-written with John Kamps) so much that he shelled out $2 million to buy it back in March 2005 and things are finally set to roll now that Koepp has figured out the problems with Indiana Jones IV. Well, probably.

The plot follows a dentist (we’re not sure if it’s Kinnear or Gervais) who dies briefly during routine surgery and finds when he awakes that the dead can now talk to him and need his help to contact the living.

Now that he has a pair of leads, Koepp plans to start shooting this October.