With both excitement and trepidation, it's time to welcome David Brent and his brand of cringe comedy back into our lives with Life on the Road. The follow-up, of sorts, to The Office features Ricky Gervais again playing the role of the oddball manager, who is now a traveling salesman. (However, this new movie sadly doesn't involve Gervais co-writer and co-director Stephen Merchant). The movie will focus on Brent taking a holiday from work to go on tour with his band, Foregone Conclusion. While he believes he’s being filmed for a rock documentary, it’s actually a “where are they now” piece (meaning the film will, of course, have the same mockumentary style that made The Office originally so unique).

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Image via Netflix

The camera quality has clearly bumped up since the original Office was filmed in the late 1990s, but otherwise, things look just about the same David Brent in the Life on the Road trailer. We immediately get a sense of how Brent uses his appearance in The Office to boost his self-worth in the time following the release of the documentary that Brent starred in. For Gervais, a busy performer and creative force, its also clearly a movie about a life on the move, traveling constantly to entertain others. One can still feel Gervais' biting sense of humor, such as with the rap that Brent's MC sings about halfway through the trailer, but there's also something resonantly personal about all of this that could draw out something truly unique out of this movie.

Here's the first full trailer for the movie that will get a theatrical release in the U.K. and Ireland on August 19th. It will be available in the U.S. via Netflix, which is also the home of Gervais' recent movie Special Correspondents.


We can only hope that the songs in the new film are as great as David Brent's classic "If You Don't Know Me By Now" from The Office. Or any of Gervais' farcical tunes, for that matter.


Here’s the official synopsis of Life on the Road:

DAVID BRENT: LIFE ON THE ROAD sees the highly anticipated big screen debut of one of comedy’s best-loved characters, David Brent (Ricky Gervais). The film catches up with Brent twelve years on from the BBC mockumentary ‘The Office’ to find he is now a travelling salesman with Lavichem, a cleaning and ladies’ personal hygiene products company. However, he hasn’t given up on his dream of rock stardom and is about to embark on a self-financed UK tour with his band, ‘Foregone Conclusion’.

Assembling a group of session musicians who are just in it for the money, and talented rapper Dom (Ben Bailey Smith) in an attempt to gain street cred, Brent cashes in his pensions and takes unpaid leave in a bid to turn his dream into reality. Get ready to join David Brent on the road as he takes one last shot at fame and fortune.

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Image via Open Roads