Ricky Gervais, the marmite comedian, loved and loathed in equal measure. We personally love the guy's work here at OWF, and my iPod in particular has basically become an exclusive Gervais/Merchant/Pilkie audio player. Anyway, no-one could accuse him of laziness. He's is always busying himself, whether it be writing new stuff for telly, stand-up, film, podcasts, audiobooks, producing, generally winding up his round-headed, real-life Homer Simpson (Karl) and now he can add woodland creature to his ever increasing list of achievements. Variety say Gervais will voice the lead character Mole in RG Entertainment's live action/animatronic adaptation of the beloved childrens tale The Wind In The Willows written by Kenneth Grahame and adapted countless times across all mediums. The movie was conceived with the hope Gervais would agree to voice Mole, and he has. Ray Griggs (I Want Your Money) is directingand Bill Marsilii ("Deja Vu") has penned the script which involves Mole venturing out of his subteranean home, bored with his spring cleaning and joining Ratty, Toad, Badger and the animals to save their land from a plot that threatens to destroy the truce between the peaceful animals of the Willows and what remains of mankind. Sounds quite apocalyptic, however, I doubt if we will see the animals foraging for shoes, like Viggo Mortenesen in The Road. After Guillermo Del Toro's attempt to bring the story to the screen with Disney collapsed earlier in the year, director Ray Griggs is having a go and is working with those effects gurus Weta on what is reported to be a live action/animation hybrid. There's not much more info out there on this but a Tim Burton-esque teaser released earlier in the year. Check it out below;Apparently further voice casting is to be announced soon so we'll keep you posted. Pre-production begins this year in New Zealand for a 2012 release.