When disabled former Royal Navy officer Allen Parton was knocked from his wheelchair by a passing car in 2001, his full-time carer saved his life by putting him in the recovery position, covering him with a blanket and, er, barking for help. Now, plans are afoot to make a film about the relationship between Parton, who suffered severe head injuries in the Gulf war, and Endal, a Labrador who received hundreds of hours of training to assist the veteran and his family.

Endal learned to understand sign language, use cashpoints and chip-and-pin machines and unload the washing machine. Parton and his wife Sandra even credit him with saving their marriage. He was given a peacetime Dickin award – described as its equivalent of the Victoria Cross – and was named Dog of the Millennium by Dogs Today magazine.

Simon Brooks, an executive producer of the 2005 Michael Keaton thriller White Noise, bought the rights to the family's story after watching a TV documentary about them. He has commissioned a script from Juliette Towhidi, writer of Calendar Girls, based on the Partons' book, Endal: How One Extraordinary Dog Brought a Family Back from the Brink, and hopes to start filming next summer. According to the Yorkshire Post, Brooks would like to cast Colin Firth or Michael Sheen as Allen Parton and Kate Winslet or Rachel Weisz as Sandra Parton.

"I am absolutely delighted," Allen Parton said. "When I came back from the Gulf war, I had lost my memory, I couldn't read, write or walk, and our marriage went through hard times ... Then Endal bounded into our lives and the rest is history."

Endal was born with the joint condition osteochondrosis and died in March, aged 13.