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Auckland water ballet troupe inspires feature film: Production company Libertine Pictures is to develop a feature film about a group of women who decide to shun book groups and cooking circles and form their own synchronised swimming troupe.

The film has been inspired by the fantastical Auckland water ballet group Wet Hot Beauties (pictured below). Libertine has commissioned Pip Hall, one of the troupe’s co-creators, to write the screenplay. “We feel this is great material for an inspiring, heart-warming and uplifting film that can be delivered in a fresh, fun way," says Libertine Pictures Joint Managing Director Richard Fletcher. "Above all, it’s about how one small apparently silly idea can bloom into something truly inspiring and life changing.”.

The film's working title is The Urban Mermaids. Fletcher says production dates and locations have yet to be set, but at the earliest it could be filming is towards the end of summer next year. Writer Pip Hall, says “I am really excited about this opportunity. Wet Hot Beauties has been an amazing, joyful and at times, profound, experience for all of us involved. It is a very special group and it's this spirit that I plan to tap into when creating the story.”

Emily Anderton, Libertine’s Head of Development, brought the project to the company and will work closely with Hall on the development of the original screenplay.

The Wet Hot Beauties most recently performed at Pt Chevalier, Takapuna and Mission Bay beaches in February and were the subject of Pip Hall's Ted Talk in Sydney, selected as part of the TED Global Talent search in 2012.

Based in Auckland and Wellington, Libertine Pictures was formed last year by internationally experienced film makers, with backing from the New Zealand Film Commission’s new Business Development Scheme, to produce feature film and television for audiences here and internationally.

About the Wet Hot Beauties:

Luscious leggy ladies in white cloche swimming caps and blood-red smiles, the WHBs are inspired by the charming and spectacular aquacades of early cinema’s delightful 1930s and 1940s era, and the kaleidoscopic designs of Hollywood movie director and water musical choreographer, Busby Berkeley. The Wet Hot Beauties community gathers afresh each Auckland summer to learn a new skill and to create a quirky new art form – the contemporary water ballet. It’s physical, it’s challenging. It’s theatrical, it’s unique. It’s glamorous and classy – but most of all – it’s fun and it’s cool.

For more information visit: http://www.whbs.co.nz/about-the-wet-hot-beauties/ and http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Pip-Hall-My-journey-of-discover;TEDSydney

About Libertine Pictures:

Libertine Pictures was formed in 2013 to bring together exceptional creative talent to make film and television that excites audiences around the world. Along with the experience of its founders, producers Richard Fletcher and Paul Davis and writer Neil Cross, the company is distinguished by its partnerships with practitioners across the industry.

This brings their expertise together with the talents of leading filmmakers and distribution and sales professionals here and overseas. Joint Managing director Richard Fletcher is a film executive with considerable production, film-financing and co-production experience on films including Boy, Under the Mountain, In My Father's Den and River Queen. He is currently co-­president of SPADA (Screen Production and Development Association).

Joint Managing Director Paul Davis has been involved in international film sales and marketing since 1984. He is an experienced film marketer and producer, with credits including Sione’s Wedding, The Tattooist, We’re Here to Help, My Wedding and Other Secrets, Sione’s 2: Unfinished Business and The Last Ocean. Creative Director Neil Cross is an internationally-acclaimed screenwriter and novelist, whose work includes the multi-award-winning BBC crime thriller Luther, starring Idris Elba, the international hit film Mama, and the BBC spy drama Spooks. Neil is based in New Zealand and writes for the screen in both Britain and the United States. For more information visit: http://www.libertinepictures.com/about

About Pip Hall: Since graduating in 1995 from the University of Otago with a degree in Drama, Pip Hall has worked as a full time writer. Pip's early theatre writing began at Allen Hall Theatre and followed with two commissions from Young & Hungry Arts Trust. Her play Red Fish, Blue Fish was selected as part of the Silo New Works Programme and then played at Circa as part of a similar programme.??Pip also co-wrote with father, Roger Hall, Who Needs Sleep Anyway? a musical and comedy revue commissioned for the Plunket Centenary.

Two of Pip's major works - The Woman Who Loved a Mountain and The 53rd Victim were both developed through the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts Show and Tell programme in 2006 and 2008. The 53rd Victim then went on to win the New New Zealand Play Award in 2009, selected out of over 70 scripts. It was also a finalist in the inaugural New Zealand Writers Guild awards in 2010. The 53rd Victim was commissioned to be adapted for Radio New Zealand and was a finalist in 2011 in the drama section of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. In 2009 she won the Bruce Mason award, New Zealand’s most prestigious playwriting award. Her one-act play Shudder was published by The Play Press in 2003 and is widely produced in high schools throughout New Zealand. queen b was published by Playmarket as part of an anthology of Young & Hungry plays. Pip also works extensively in television and film as a writer, story liner, story/script editor, developer, creative producer and actor. She is also co-creator and co-producer of the Wet Hot Beauties, a contemporary water ballet company. She lives with her husband and two children in Westmere, Auckland.