What a fairy!

Stephen Merchant lands film role

Stephen Merchant has landed his biggest ever movie role – playing a tooth fairy in a family comedy starring Dame Julie Andrews and a former WWE wrestler.

The Tooth Fairy stars Dwayne Johnson – better known as grappler The Rock – as an ice hockey player with a reputation for knock out opposing players' teeth.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the plot has him become a tooth fairy, ‘complete with wings, magic wand and frilly tutu’ to make amends for being mean to a youngster.

Merchant plays Tracy, a socially awkward tooth fairy who is assigned to be Johnson’s mentor, despite not having earned his own wings. Dame Julie plays his boss.

Until now, the Extras star’s movie experience has been limited to cameos in Hot Fuzz and Run, Fat Boy, Run. He has another small role in Ricky Gervais’s This Side Of The Truth

The 20th Century Fox film begins shooting in Vancouver next month. It also stars Ashley Judd and pro skateboarder Ryan Sheckler and will be directed by Michael Lembeck, whose previous credits include The Santa Clause 2 and 3.

Meanwhile, Merchant is also directing his first episode of the American Office – the Halloween edition – which began shooting yesterday afternoon.

‘He was in the writers room with us rewriting over the last several days,’ said Paul Lieberstein, who produces, writes and acts in the show. ‘It was really exciting having him there.’

He added that Merchant was strict about keeping the ‘integrity’ of the documentary format.

‘He calls us out every once in while – like “How are they gonna do that with a little documentary?”. When we seem to go a little too far or get too personal with them or set a scene in the bathroom, he’s like, “Really? I don't think they follow them.” But he’s extremely funny, and it's been great working with him.

Merchant co-directed all the episodes in the BBC original with Ricky Gervais, and the pair wrote an episode in the third series – but this is his first time behind the camera of the NBC show.

Series five of the The Office premieres with an hour-long episode on September 25.

Published: 9 Sep 2008

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