I'm a bit surprised at Ricky Gervais. He's a great and clever comic mind and yet his Hollywood outings have been simple parodies of his own on screen character. Now he looks set to continue that, although now he may well receive his first real leading role.

Early Retirement is a film based on a comedy pitch from Mark Perez which will see a work-obsessed an quitting his demanding job to spend more time with his family - insert the phrase "with hilarious and comic results" here.

Apparently, according to the comments through Variety, they want to do a family comedy picking up where others have left off...where's that then? Where it becomes an adult comedy with some intelligence?

Okay, maybe I am being a bit harsh on the idea and Ricky Gervais, but his film appearances have been quite limited to date and do feature him doing his trademark appearance. Can you really see him in a family comedy? Just how far are they going to have to push it to allow Gervais to bring his real self to the party?