Image copyright Supplied - rights free Image caption David Brent cashes in some of his pension pot to pay for musicians on his tour

Ricky Gervais is to make a big screen outing centred around his character from the The Office, David Brent.

The film, Life On The Road, will chart Brent's progress in the 15 years since leaving the company at the centre of the hit BBC Two show.

Brent will be portrayed as a travelling salesman financing a UK concert tour in the hopes of fulfilling his dreams of becoming a rock star.

The BBC film is expected to go into production next year.

The movie will be made in the UK but is intended for worldwide distribution. The Office was shown in more than 100 countries, and was also remade for a number of local markets. including the US.

It originally ran in the UK on BBC Two from 2001 - 2003.

Gervais, who picked up a slew of awards for the show and his portrayal of Brent, went on to produce and star in Extras and Derek.

But he returned to his best known character, bringing Brent back for a Comic Relief special in 2013.

More recently, he revived the hapless character in a series of spoof videos on YouTube inviting viewers to learn the guitar with the former manager of Slough paper company Wernham Hogg.

The appearance led Gervais to take Brent and his band, Foregone Conclusion, out on the road for a number of live appearances.

In the new big screen outing, currently in development, Brent assumes the director is making a rockumentary in the vein of Martin Scorsese's film about the Rolling Stones - but it turns into a "where are they now"?

Brent, now a travelling cleaning product salesman, covers the cost of session musicians by raiding his pension pot because the returns from ticket sales for his concerts are so meagre.

The film is expected to follow the mockumentary style which characterised The Office and turned it into a huge - if at times painful to watch - small screen hit.