Ralph Fiennes, one of the greatest actors working today, has decided to join forces with one of the greatest comedians working today – Ricky Gervais. Ricky and Ralph, Ricky and Ralph! I’m so happy I just squealed.

Ralph signed on to The Men at the Pru, a film that Gervais co-wrote with Stephen Merchant, with Ricky attached as director. This comes just days after it was announced that Ralph would be re-teaming with his old friend Liam Neeson for a remake of Clash of the Titans. Ralph rarely does comedy, but he’s not really the stale, humorless “Actor” that he’s often portrayed as. In interviews, I usually find him funny and charming, and I can see him doing well with a Ricky Gervais script.

Ralph Fiennes is a busy boy these days. First, the news the Oscar-nominated actor is set to join the cast of Clash of the Titans as Hades, lord of the Underworld. It’s also emerged that he’s set to join the cast of The Men At The Pru, the new comedy from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

It’s not yet known who Fiennes will be playing in the 70s-set comedy, which will mark the first time that The Office and Extras creators have written and directed a movie together. But it’s always good to see Fiennes, with a reputation for being ultra-serious, exercising his funnybone. Didn’t do him any harm in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, did it?

The Men At The Pru will start shooting later this year, giving Fiennes time to sort out a scheduling… well, let’s say clash of the titans between that, Clash Of The Titans (of course), his role as Voldemort in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part II, and a cameo in the sequel to Nanny McPhee.

Oh, and after that little lot, he’s going to make his directorial debut on a movie version of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. As ever, we wish him well.

[From Empire Online]

So what exactly will The Men at the Pru be about? UK’s The Independent has a pretty good write up about the film-to-be, and it does sound interesting. Ricky and Ralph will be playing two friends who grew up in Reading, England, which Ricky described as “a seaside town [where] the sexual revolution never hit … I’d be a 45-year-old in 1970, so I’d be one of those people who thought the permissive society was disgusting. That’s why we’re losing our empire.” The characters work for the Prudential, some sort of bank/financial services place that was huge in the 1970s. The film is also described as “a cross between The Office and Mad Men”. Two of my favorites! Excellent.

It is not the usual stuff of celluloid blockbusters – a quirky “dramedy” about two twenty-somethings in the 1970s who work as building society clerks in the dull suburban surrounds of Reading. Then again, nobody thought that about a comedy set in an office in Slough either.

But now Ricky Gervais has just finished writing the script for The Men at the Pru – a major feature film he describes as a cross between The Office and Mad Men.

The story is a “coming-of-age” tale about two friends who work for the Prudential, then a building society, amid the concrete “glamour” of the town where Gervais grew up. The idea first started as a television series, but has now morphed into a feature film which is due to begin filming next year. Gervais and his creative partner, Stephen Merchant, visited the Pru’s London headquarters in February.

They tried to reassure the financial services company that it would provide a backdrop for the drama and not become subject to the same lampooning of white-collar workers as shown in The Office. Jon Bunn, the PR director at the Prudential who met the comedians during their research, said: “They came in to look through our old archived stuff and Merchant then came in separately and went though the archives in more detail. They wanted to find out what the Prudential was like in years gone by.

“They looked at recruitment material, advertising, staff magazines and various other literature. There was also a recruitment advertisement that was shown in the local cinema in Reading which featured actual members of staff. It was an induction video for the Prudential, about it being a good place to work, which they said in a 1970s kind of way,” he said.

Gervais is not speaking about the film, but wrote on his blog: “Did a bit of scouting for The Men at the Pru. Filming won’t start ’til next May or June but locations can really inspire. I’ve also been reading books about my home town of Reading. That’s where the HQ of the Prudential Building Society was in the ’70s.” Gervais has said it would be set “in the 1970s in a seaside town the sexual revolution never hit … I’d be a 45-year-old in 1970, so I’d be one of those people who thought the permissive society was disgusting. That’s why we’re losing our empire.”

[From The Independent ]

Woohoo! Ricky and Ralph forever! At the end of The Independent article, they’ve put some of Ricky’s best quotes, and I found two new favorites: “Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.” And: “If at first you don’t succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.”