When I devoured the script for
The Invention of Lying, the upcoming 02.09.09
Ricky Gervais movie (script review since removed at request of Universal, DESPITE it being spoiler free and 90% positive, but hey that's the business we live in), my favourite part of the socially conscious message comedy was the "first date" restaurant scene between Gervais and the stunning
Jennifer Garner. I've mentioned it many times on this blog before, and much to my non-surprise, it's the scene that opens the trailer, henceforth making it
"the money scene". The scene to me felt so typically Gervais that I thought it could only have come out of his socially conscious mind, but as it turns out he didn't actually write it, or at least didn't come up with the initial idea. That was his co-writer/co-director
Matt Robinson, unless he of course is lying himself to
Drew McWeeny at Hitfix...
I've got like a giant book of ideas and I've had this one... about a year before I wrote it, I came up with the basic idea. My wife and I had been watching "Twilight Zone" episodes all weekend, and I'd been reading... what was I reading? Oh God, why am I forgetting his name? Anyway, I was reading this author who does these really crazy sort of quirky sci-fi short stories, and I don't know... I woke up one morning, and I think my brain had been so infused with that kind of big concept storytelling, short form, that I woke up with the idea of a world where lying doesn't exist. And I think I mentioned it to my wife and she said something along the lines of, like, "Sounds a bit like a crap 'Liar, Liar'," and I was like, "Yeah, probably". But the idea sort of remained. I sat down, and I wrote the opening date scene as a sketch. Without any bigger world. It wasn't part of something else... it was just a loser on a date with a hot girl in a world where lying doesn't exist.
Expect this one to get 70/80% positive reviews, possibly higher when it plays at Toronto soon.