David Farnor | On 15, Jun 2016

Netflix continues to build its comedy line-up with two new acquisitions this week.

The first is Ricky Gervais’ David Brent movie. The spin-off from his sitcom The Office, called Life on the Road, sees a documentary crew catch up with his egotistical boss as he chases his dream of rock stardom with a self-funded tour of the UK with his band, Foregone Conclusion.

Gervais announced the news in an interview for the Opie With Jim Norton Show on SiriusXM.

“This is exciting news and this is top secret, so I’m going to say it now. Netflix has bought out the rest of the world again,” Gervais revealed. “Which is great for me, because I’d rather 20 million people see it than half a million people see it in cinemas, do you know what I mean? Because I want to do tours off the back of it. So for me, it’s great.”

In the UK, the film is being released in cinemas first by eOne this August, which is also handling distribution in Australia/New Zealand. The film will then arrive on Netflix worldwide next year.

The deal follows the global release of Gervais’ Special Correspondents exclusively on Netflix, with the streaming giant also holding the rights to Derek, which is branded as a Netflix original in the US.

Netflix has also nabbed the rights to detective comedy Handsome. Written by Andrea Seigel (Laggies) and Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Goldbergs), and directed by and starring Garlin, the film is a Columbo-style mystery comedy that follows LA investigator Gene Handsome, who tries to make sense of his life as he solves crime. He’s really good at one of those.

The film also stars Christine Woods (Hello Ladies, Perfect Couples), Natasha Lyonne (Orange is the New Black), Amy Sedaris (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, BoJack Horseman), Steven Webber (Wings, Studio 60, iZombie), Eddie Peppitone (Comedy Bang! Bang!, Love), and Leah Remini (King of Queens).

Master of None’s David Miner, Vern Davidson (The Goldbergs) and Garlin are producers on the film.

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