Ghost Town is an upcoming 2008 fantasy-comedy film directed by David Koepp and starring Ricky Gervais.

A notable change of pace for director and co-writer David Koepp, whose screenplays tend to run along the epic lines of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "Spider-Man" and "War of the Worlds," this lower-key effort offers up a winning mix of sharp comedy and touching bits that keeps the laughter -- a few tears -- flowing.

Ghost Town is to impress the audience as an original work with its own quirky sensibility, benefiting immensely from the charisma of British comedian-actor Ricky Gervais, who has established a reputation as star of the TV series "The Office."

Plot
Gervais plays Dr. Bertram Pincus, a big-city dentist, a cynical snob and self-consumed loner who just wants to get away from the masses that surround him in Manhattan-New York. Whether or not dentists like their patients is debatable and irrelevant. What does matter is that the nature of the work is such that they have good reason not to socialize with them while they're drilling. Indeed, initially, Dr. Pincus takes full advantage of his profession's "natural" conditions.

But Pincus is about to have a comeuppance, when his entire world-view is punctured in the wake of a near-death experience. Things go awry, when during Pincus' routine colonoscopy, his life is turned upside down in unimaginable, unpredictable ways.

After the accident, Pincus can and does see dead people; he literally can't avoid them no matter where he goes. This means he has no choice but to interact with these persistent spirits, an experience which opens him up to an even more frightening realization. The only way he's going to get rid of his poltergeists is by helping them, which is the definition of punishment for a misanthrope like him.

At first, Pincus's sole motivation in helping the ghost of Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) break up the marriage of his widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni), is simply the promise that if he does so, Frank will make all the ghosts go away.

Pincus's new, haunted life is changed by one fateful encounter with one harassing ghost, that of Frank, once a handsome debonair but unfaithful husband who, after losing his life, now hopes to finally do the right thing. Aggressive and obnoxious, he uses every tactic in his pushy New York attitude to pester Pincus into helping him.

You could say that Frank is a conflicted ghost, torn by the dilemma of a man who wants to be released from his earthly bonds and in the process becomes sort of a spectral Cyrano to Pincus, coaching him and telling him what to tell and how to behave with his ex-wife, Gwen.

Equally creatively constructed is Gwen, the brilliant, Egyptologist widow and femme fatale, obsessed with dead people from ancient time, who's almost given up on finding love in the present. Predictably, before long, Pincus falls in love with Gwen and begins dating her, and we get a sense of a middle-aged man who has never been really smitten by a woman. Will he tell her the truth, when the time comes, and how will he do it?

The ensuing yarn unfolds as a moral journey of an anti-social man in serious need of a wake-up call and a lesson in humanity and humility. The gradual changes of his persona are reflected in the changing relationship with his Indian dentist colleague, Dr. Prashar (Aasif Mandvi), an upbeat, optimistic fellow whom he first despises.

Pincus's interpersonal communication problems shape the story into a fable-like structure, taking it from being just a comic romp through a spirit-filled New York to the tale of a man's inner transformation through his paranormal encounters.

The scenario is based on the idea that the worst thing that can happen to a "dedicated loner" such as Dr. Pincus if he is to be forced to interact with people, and people who have access to him anywhere, at any time. Refreshingly, the comedy is not about special effects or supernatural gags, but about the relationships between Pincus, Frank, and Frank's ex-wife and the awkward situations the trio find themselves in.

New Yorkers will get a kick out of seeing their beloved Manhattan conceived as a "ghost town," David Koepp has created a fantasy New York that's under populated (by the living), teeming with invisible ghosts that normally can't be seen by the living, and it is these needy ghosts that steer Pincus back into facing head-on and interacting with the "real" world.

Cast

• Ricky Gervais as Bertram Pincus, a misanthropic dentist who gains the ability to communicate with ghosts
• Greg Kinnear as Frank Herlihy, a ghost who befriends Pincus
• Téa Leoni as Gwen, an Egyptologist and Frank's widow
• Billy Campbell as Gwen's love interest, whom Frank warns is a "bad man".
• Alan Ruckas a ghost competing with Frank for Bertram's attention.
• Kristen Wiig as Bertram's self involved surgeon.
• Aasif Mandvi as Dr. Prashar.