'Fred: The Movie' premieres on Nickelodeon

17-year-old Lucas Cruikshank of Nebraska became an instant Internet superstar at the age of 13 with his hilarious "Fred Figglehorn" YouTube videos in 2008. Today, Fred's YouTube channel is the second most subscribed to channel. "Fred: The Movie," a full length film starring Cruikshank, premieres on Nickelodeon on September 18, 2010. "Fred: The Movie" hits DVD on October 5, 2010.

In the original homemade comedy videos, Lucas took on the persona of a hyperactive, anxious, 6 year old with a squeaky voice and a dysfunctional (off camera) family. Each episode featured Fred recording himself in a video diary.  

 
The made-for-TV movie was written by David A. Goodman, who is the producer of "Family Guy" and directed by Clay Weiner. The Fred movie  stars actress Pixie Lott as "Judy" (Fred's girl-next-door crush), Jennette McCurdy (from iCarly) as Bertha, Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Fred's mom and WWE star John Cena as Fred's dad.

In a recent interview with Christina Radish for Collider.com, Director Brian Robbins was asked how he became involved with making the Fred movie. Robbins was qouted as saying: 

It was pretty wild. I was aware of Fred being this Internet phenomenon. They asked me to take a meeting with him, thinking of maybe doing a TV show with him because I had done all those shows early on, on Nickelodeon, and I have a show on Disney now, but I wasn’t interested in doing another TV show for kids. But, after meeting him, I was really intrigued with him and I knew there was something bigger than the YouTube thing there and there was something really appealing about this character that was striking a nerve with tweens. That many hits is pretty phenomenal.

So, I went home that night already intrigued, and I had these boys sleeping over at my house that were eight, nine and 10-year-old kids, and I asked them, “Do you guys know who Fred is?” They said yeah, and they all did their imitations of him. And then, I was like, “Would you want to see a Fred movie?,” and they were like, “Tonight?!” So, I just said, “Let’s do this. Let’s be entrepreneurial about it. Let’s make it ourselves.” I knew we’d have to make it fast and, in order to make something fast in this town, you can’t get a studio or a network involved.
 

The Omaha World Herald's  Kevin Coffey interviewed Lucas Cruikshank before the movie's premiere on Nickelodeon. Cruikshank revealed that he has signed on for a sitcom with Nickelodeon called "Marvin, Marvin." In the show Cruikshank will play a teen from another planet who feels out of place in his new High School on Earth. He described the show as a cross between "Mork and Mindy" and "3rd Rock From The Sun."

Catch "Fred: The Movie" on Nickelodeon, September 18th at 8:00 p.m. EST. If you miss it the first time, the encore showing will play on Sunday, September 19th at 8:00 p.m.