Simon Cowell, Vertigo to produce Pudsey: The Movie

The UK’s favourite canine of recent years, Pudsey, winner of Britain’s Got Talent 2012, is to star in his own feature film, Screen can reveal.

Pudsey: The Movie, set to star Pudsey and his trainer Ashleigh Butler, is being developed and produced by Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and Vertigo Films.

The family feature is slated to shoot this spring with a Christmas 2013 release. Vertigo Distribution is due to handle the UK theatrical release. 

The dog trick act duo shot to stardom last year when they won talent show Britain’s Got Talent in May, drawing in a 14.5m TV audience on its finale and generating tens of millions of Youtube hits worldwide.

Pudsey has gone on to appear on US shows Jay Leno and America’s Got Talent. He will next be seen at the National Television Awards in London where he will perform a version of K-Pop hit and Youtube sensation Gangnam Style.

Vertigo, producers of Horrid Henry, The Sweeney and Monsters, has a record of striking gold with former BGT winners, casting George Sampson and Diversity in the company’s biggest hit to date, StreetDance 3D.

Cowell’s Syco Entertainment is responsible for blockbuster TV formats including The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent.

The feature will be Cowell’s third. In the last two years he has also produced Morgan Spurlock’s One Direction documentary, currently in production, and David Frankel’s Paul Pott’s biopic One Chance, currently in post-production, which stars James Corden as Britain’s Got Talent’s first winner.   

Rupert Preston of Vertigo said: “We’re delighted to be developing this idea with Syco and we can’t wait to bring Pudsey to the big screen. It will be great, feel-good, fun entertainment for all the family.”

Mark Brittain, global commercial director for Syco, added: “This is a really exciting initiative for us – and we look forward to working with Vertigo as it develops.”

The co-production deal was signed by Preston for Vertigo and Brittain on behalf of Syco. Plot details and the identities of potential writers were unavailable. 

Pudsey’s manager Jonathan Shalit, of Roar Global, commented: “The British people love Pudsey. He has met the Queen and was invited to 10 Downing Street by the Prime Minister. This represents a hugely exciting next step.”