CANNES (AFP) - A film version of The Office with Ricky Gervais and a Pablo Escobar biopic with husband-and-wife stars Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz were among the projects landing deals at the Cannes Film Festival as it entered its second day on Thursday.

Gervais's excruciating office boss will get the feature-length treatment after BBC Films and Entertainment One announced they were backing Life On The Road, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The film will follow David Brent - a character made famous by Gervais and later adopted by Steve Carell for the American version - as he tries to self-finance a tour of his rock band.

There was also a lot of buzz around the festival on the French Riviera about a new film based on the 2007 memoir Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar written by one of the drug kingpin's lovers, trade magazine Variety reported.

It will star Bardem and Cruz - both Oscar winners who married in 2010 - and be financed by French filmmaker Luc Besson's production company.

Escobar was a notorious Colombian drug lord, dubbed the "King of Cocaine", who was thought to be the richest criminal in the world by the time he was killed by police in 1993.

Both The Office and Escobar are due to start shooting later this year.