Ricky Gervais is teaming with former 'Dexter' showrunner Clyde Phillips for a trip to the 'Afterlife.'

According to Entertainment Weekly, the new series follows an atheist who dies and goes to heaven.

The duo are working on writing the pilot episode now with plans to film it in early 2012. Gervais is set to make a cameo in the pilot.

Gervais' new comedy, 'Life's Too Short,' starring Warwick Davis, is heading to HBO. The comedy is starting on BBC Two later in 2011 and will make its HBO debut in 2012.

Showtime's drama about the serial killer with a heart of gold has been the network's top-rated show since its first season in 2006. This latest season injected a near-overdose of creepiness with the addition of John Lithgow, a maestro of the macabre, as the Trinity Killer, and ratings soared even higher. (It turns out audiences have an even higher tolerance for disturbing hammer murders than disturbing David Duchovney sex scenes.)

However, after the ratings record-breaking 'Dexter' finale Sunday, all that bloody love hangs in jeopardy since showrunner Clyde Phillips announced he's leaving the show to spend more time with his family in Connecticut. Maybe the dozens of violent murders and buckets of blood finally got to him.

Here comes some shocking news just as the crest of the Dexter buzz wave is starting to form.

Clyde Phillips, the show's long running showrunner, has decided that the fourth season of the show which ended Sunday will be his last.

Phillips said he made the decision during a long drive to his family's home in Connecticut and is leaving so he can spend more time with them. He described it as a "hugely difficult decision" and that he had "complicated feelings about it."

Frankly, the timing couldn't have been better. It ended on a climax that was so well done and gripping that my mind cannot even wrap itself around the possibilities of how to top it. It could, but it's giving me a headache like you would not believe.

When I posted the news items that came out of Showtime's portion of the CBS tour, the one question I got was "When will Dexter be back?" Well, network president Robert Greenblatt mentioned that the third season would debut in September. No word beyond that. Didn't seem like news to me. But there you are, Dexter fans; that's all I've got on that.

The executive session was introduced by a semi-funny clip from one of the network's stars, Tracey Ullman. Really, it wasn't that good, so I won't talk much about it here. Greenblatt also showed clips of The United States of Tara and Nurse Jackie during his opening remarks. Other than that? Well, isn't that enough?