Ricky Gervais, pictured here in Los Angeles in February, published his first Flanimals book in 2004. It landed on the New York Times bestseller list. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

British comedian Ricky Gervais is venturing into the world of animation with the announcement that his children's book series, Flanimals, will be adapted to the big screen in 3D.

Ilumination Entertainment, an arm of Universal, is backing a feature with Gervais voicing the lead character and a script co-written by Matt Selman of The Simpsons, according to Hollywood tradepaper Variety.

The Emmy-winning comedian, who created The Office TV series in the U.K. and starred in last year's Ghost Town, wrote a four-volume set of books about a world of ugly creatures.

The first book came out in 2004 and landed on the New York Times bestseller list.

The 47-year-old performer had started to develop a series based on his books with Britain's ITV channel, slated to air this year, but that project was dropped.

Gervais's character, Puddy the Puddloflaj, is a chubby, perspiring purple creature.

"It will be great to play a short, fat, sweaty loser for a change," the pudgy comedian noted. "A real stretch."

Gervais also says he's interested in using the voices of Danny DeVito and Samuel L. Jackson for the movie.

Some of the other strange creatures include Grundit, a kind of dumb jock blue Flanimal with a bump on its head and Honk, a small Flanimal that tends to sleep all the time.