Ricky remakes a French comedy

Ricky Gervais's next movie, Special Correspondents, has secured a UK distribution.

The film stars Eric Bana as a radio journalist who fakes reports from a war in Ecuador  from a New York hideout. However, as the lies escalate and they fabricate their own kidnap, the pair have to smuggle themselves into the war zone, where they are hijacked for real.

Gervais is directing and writing the movie, as well as starring as Bana's hapless sound engineer.

It is a remake of the 2008 French comedy Envoyés Très Spéciaux, which was set around the Iraq conflict and featured a subplot in which the star reporter had a fling with a woman who turned out to be the technician's wife.

The movie is due to shoot in New York and Vancouver in spring 2015.

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions has also secured the rights for the film in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Latin America, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

Here's a trailer for the French original:

Published: 16 Nov 2014