Ricky Gervais dropped big news during an interview on SiriusXM’s Opie with Jim Norton Show on Tuesday: The comedian announced that David Brent: Life on the Road, his film spinoff of the British TV version of The Office, will stream on Netflix.
“This is exciting news and this is top secret, so I’m going to say it now,” said Gervais during the interview. “Netflix have bought out the rest of the world again.”
The film is an important project for Gervais, who not only stars in it, but served as the writer and director as well. Not surprisingly, he was clearly thrilled that Netflix had made its move. “I’d rather 20 million people see it than half a million people see it in cinemas,” he said. “I want to do tours off the back of it.”
David Brent: Life on the Road will bring back Gervais’ hilarious Office character 15 years after the events of the series. In spite of all the time that has passed, Brent will still be in the pursuit of rock star ambitions — presumably with all the social grace and competence fans have come to expect from him (that is to say, none). Like its predecessors, the film will be a mockumentary, and this time around Brent will be expecting a concert tour documentary rather than the actual “Where Are They Now?” type production, according to Deadline.
While Netflix will stream the film in many parts of the world, distribution in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand will be managed by Entertainment One, which co-financed the film along with BBC. The theatrical release is planned for August, with Netflix streaming coming in 2017. Unfortunately, that still makes for quite a wait, but we expect the comedy to be worth it.
Watch Gervais discuss the acquisition in the interview below. (Warning: NSFW.)
