Ricky Gervais IS taking over the media world.

Not content with leading the way in television (The Office, Extras), stand-up (Animals, Politics), radio, podcasts and films (Valiant, For Your Consideration) AND successfully exporting these formats across the Atlantic he is getting his feet firmly under the animation table.

His recent daliance in The Simpsons proved so successful that the show voiced their interest to get him back. Now he has reportably signed a six-figure contract with ITV1 to adapt his children's books, Flanimals, into a television cartoon.

However, a similar report came out at the end of 2004 to declare that he had also signed up with 20th Century Fox to produce a film version that would rival the works of Pixar.

Gervais's twisted  menagerie contains such delightful creatures as the Munty Flumple, Puddloflaj, Mernimbler and Grundit. He said about the creation process, "I went mental coming up with ridiculous words for them, but I like the idea of parents not being able to pronounce words like 'Psquirm'."

He has published two books on Flanimals (illustrated by Rob Steen) and has now released a selection of hand-crafted models available from the Flanimals website.