Thanks to rickygervais.com, Facebook and sky movies, a ton of new images from Cemetery Junction have hit the net.  If you aren’t excited for this film…you should be.  The reason is it’s the first film to be written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (The Office, Extras).  If you’ve seen either show, you know what I’m talking about.

When I spoke to Gervais when he was out promoting The Invention of Lying, he said Cemetery Junction is “set in the early 70′s and it’s about a group of twenty something’s that try to escape that stifling small town sort of mentality.”   He also called the movie his Saturday Night Fever.

While the main characters in the film are played by unknowns, they’ve cast Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, Matthew Goode, and Felicity Jones in supporting roles.  Hit the jump to see the first teaser trailer, a set visit by Sky News, and all the images that have hit the net so far.

Ricky Gervais is working his ass off lately. The Invention of Lying just ended its theatrical run, and he’s got another film, Cemetery Junction, coming next year. Now he’s entering the mobile phone market with PhoneShop. Gervais is editing the script for the series, which will air in the U.K. on Channel 4. Phil Bowker created, produced, and wrote the series. Bowker, who gave Gervais his first job on TV a decade ago, has produced several TV shows, but this will be his first run at writing and directing.  Little is known about PhoneShop, but it will take place at a cell phone store in a mall. The story (I’m guessing first episode) revolves around Christopher (Tom Bennett) who has to sell a cell phone by closing time to get a job at the store.  More on the series after the jump.

“Zombieland” is already a financial hit for Sony.  After opening up a big lead on Friday, Ruben Fleischer’s $24 million directorial debut continued to dominate a crowded weekend session, closing Sunday with an estimated $25 million from 3,036 engagements.  And because, lately, the box office has room for only one hit per weekend, new releases like Drew Barrymore’s “Whip It” suffered by comparison.

October is off to a strong start for at least one studio. Sony saw “Zombieland” take number one on Friday with a $9.4 million debut in 3,036 theatres. The horror/comedy hybrid knocked another Sony release, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”, into second place after two weeks at number one. In other 3D news, the debut of Pixar’s “Toy Story 1 & 2″ was not far behind “Meatballs” with $3.2 million. Disney’s double bill should take a bite out of Sony’s weekend-matinee monopoly but, playing in only 1,745 locations, it may be hard for the retooled toys to catch up.  Sony was not the only studio that had something to smile about on Friday. Warner Brothers’ new comedy “The Invention of Lying” surprised even the studio by coming in fourth with a $2.5 million debut in 1,707 theatres.  Fox Searchlight’s “Whip It”, playing in the same number of venues, was also a surprise.  The Drew Barrymore/Ellen Page vehicle fell short of the top five despite those ‘sneak peaks’ the studio hosted last Saturday.  Check back tomorrow for full weekend box office results.

With Ricky Gervais “The Invention of Lying” set for release October 2nd, we’ve been given some cool stuff to giveaway to help promote the film. If you haven’t seen the clips from the movie, “The Invention Of Lying” stars Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Fionnula Flanagan and Rob Lowe and it’s loaded with cameos from some of the biggest actors in Hollywood. As you might infer from the title, the film takes place in an alternate reality in which lying-even the concept of a lie-does not exist. But that all changes when Ricky Gervais tells the first one. Anyway, if you’d like some free stuff, hit the jump to see what we’ve got and how you can win:

A few days ago, I attended the press conference for Ricky Gervais’ new film “The Invention of Lying” at the Toronto Film Festival. While you usually have to wait for the stars to arrive, Ricky showed up a few minutes early and when I went to put my recorder down, I managed to ask him a number of questions about his next project with Stephen Merchant called “Cemetery Junction”. If you’re a fan of “Extras” or the British version of “The Office”, Ricky and Stephen Merchant created the shows together and “Cemetery Junction” is the first film they’ve written and directed together.

Anyway, he told me while filming only recently finished, they’ve already done a friends and family screening and it turned out quite well. He also called the movie his “Saturday Night Fever”. For more on the project and his new HBO animated series “The Ricky Gervais Show”, it’s after the jump:

Opening on October 2nd is the new Ricky Gervais movie “The Invention of Lying”. The film takes place in an alternate reality where lying — even the concept of a lie — does not even exist. Everyone from politicians to advertisers to the man and woman on the street speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of the consequences. But when a down-on-his-luck loser named Mark (Ricky Gervais) suddenly develops the ability to lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. The film also stars Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Rob Lowe, Tina Fey, and it also has guest appearances from some of the biggest names in Hollywood. So to help promote the film, we’ve been provided with 6 clips from the movie. They’re after the jump so take a look.

The first time I saw Ricky Gervais as David Brent in The Office (BBC), I thought he was a jackass. When I found out he also co-wrote and directed the series, I knew he was a genius (no lie). Lately, he’s been exploring the big screen. “The Invention of Lying” is his latest leading role, and he’s back to writing and directing as well. Gervais plays Mark, who lives in a world where there is no such thing as a lie…until he invents it and uses it to his advantage. A new poster and the theatrical trailer after the jump.

Warner Bros. has released a preview of their upcoming 2009 movies. In the preview, they’ve got updated synopsis’ along with new images from “Whiteout”, “Ninja Assassin”, “The Invention of Lying”, “The Informant!” and a few others. So if you’d like to see the new images and read what’s coming later this year (it’s a lot of great stuff), it’s all after the jump:

There may be bigger comedies on the horizon (“Bruno”, “Funny People”) but Ricky Gervais’ “The Invention of Lying” (formerly known as “This Side of the Truth”) remains high on my radar as it should anyone that is fan of Gervais because while “Ghost Town” was surprisingly good, I feel like this is his big cinematic debut for US audiences.

Yahoo! Movies recently debuted the trailer for the film and it looks very…Gervais.  Based in a world where everyone always tells the truth, Gervais’ character discovers that he can lie.  If there’s only minor flaw that caught me in the trailer, it seems like Gervais’ character is astounded when folks tell him the truth.  Everyone else reacts deadpan and like it’s not a big deal (which makes sense) but Gervais reacts like he does whenever anyone said something stupid to him on “Extras”.  But perhaps these reaction shots are after he’s acquired his “lying” ability.  Check out the trailer after the jump.

You may have been wondering what happened to Ricky Gervais’ “This Side of the Truth”, a clever film about a man (played by Gervais) who inhabits a world where people only tell the truth until he discovers he can lie.  Well, the first thing you should know is that it’s no longer titled “This Side of the Truth” and is now called “The Invention of Lying”.  On his website, Gervais explains:

Oh yes, we’ve changed the title by the way. Just when Steve (Merchant) and I had decided on Cemetery Junction after not being allowed to mention anything to do with The Prudential, Matt (Robinson) and I decided to revert to the original title of our film – The Invention of Lying.

I loved This Side of the Truth but we worried that in all the marketing it would be difficult to try to get the concept across. If you go more “on the nose” with the title you can be more creative with trailers and posters. Anyway, here are the final verdicts;

The film previously known at The Man from The Pru is now called CEMETERY JUNCTION
The film previously known as This Side of the Truth is now called THE INVENTION OF LYING

Along with these title changes, Gervais revealed on Letterman that the film will be released on September 25th.  After the jump, check out the video of Gervais talking about the title change and the release date (it starts around the 8-minute mark).