There's a Jones in Gervais' Prudential!
Felicity Jones, an actress with a name that sounds part James Bond/part Austin Powers and definitely a signature that belongs in a yesteryear era, will play the lead female role in Ricky Gervais/Stephen Merchant's 70's set movie Cemetery Junction. Jones appeared in Flashbacks of a Fool and last year's British drama Brideshead Revisited, along with the upcoming Stephen Frears movie Cheri. Though this will be her first leading role. Gervais and Merchant's first movie together after creating The Office and Extras is about class and love in a small town where our leads work at the Prudential insurance company in the 1970's. Previously the movie was to be called The Man from the Pru but Gervais was forced to change the title.The Hollywood Reporter say Jones will play Julie, who is led to believe by the men around her that a woman should focus on raising a family but who wants to break out and pursue a career in photography. Which sounds like Gervais is re-tooling the same theme he worked with on The Office where receptionist Dawn Tinsley had a dream of being an artist but was constantly held down by the reality of the 9 to 5 to survive. Casting is coming in fast now. Just last week we heard Ralph Fiennes had been offered the role of the boss of the Pru, stepping I guess into Gervais' shoes. Gervais himself is only expected to have a small cameo in the film. Cemetary Junction shoots in the Summer from the newly formed U.K. outlet Sony International Motion Picture Production Group whose first movie was the recent Brian Clough biopic The Damned United.