Libertine Pictures Launches in New Zealand

AUCKLAND: Producers Richard Fletcher and Paul Davis have teamed up with writer Neil Cross, the creator of BBC’s Luther, to launch Libertine Pictures, a new film and TV production company based in New Zealand.

Fletcher and Davis are joint managing directors. Cross serves as Libertine’s creative director. Cross’s other writing credits include Doctor Who, the film Mama and the upcoming NBC action-adventure series Crossbones.

Libertine is the first recipient of funding under the New Zealand Film Commission’s new business development scheme. This funding provides Libertine with the security of a devolved contribution toward its first three years of development and overhead financing.

Non-exclusive filmmaking partnerships are already in place with Cliff Curtis, Ainsley Gardiner of Whenua Film, Trevor Haysom of T.H.E. Film, Thomas Robins and David Stubbs of KHF Media, Taika Waititi and Chelsea Winstanley of Defender Films and David White of White Balance Pictures.

“We are committed to empowering creators and ensure they are at the core of the filmmaking process by supporting them with business knowledge and infrastructure alongside domestic and international market expertise,” said Fletcher.

Fletcher continued, “Paul and I realized that while there are many highly talented and experienced people involved in the local industry, their expertise tends to be focused in particularly specialized areas. Projects may fail to reach their potential because it is hard to tap into a combination of high quality development, production and distribution expertise at an early stage. We asked ourselves how could we harness that creativity and bring their screen ideas to production?

“We have worked extensively in the industry both locally and overseas and between us we have built up a valuable range of contacts and relationships. Libertine will offer structured expertise providing a collaborative solution for filmmakers.

“While some productions will be originated by and wholly owned by Libertine, our philosophy is to encourage others to work with us, with Libertine either acting as a producer, executive producer, or in a consultancy role. The output will be a mix of wholly owned, jointly owned, and work for hire.”

“Whilst we expect to work closely with our filmmaking partners we recognize the importance of the filmmakers also having wider collaboration with other partners. We wish to create choice for the filmmaker,” concluded Fletcher.