Bermudian film producer and screenwriter Lucinda Spurling (pictured) received a boost to her hopes of turning her screenplay about an infamous airship disaster into a blockbuster movie from a key meeting in London.

Gub Neal, the former head of drama at Britain's Channel Four, told Ms Spurling, the owner of Afflare Films, that he would be interested in becoming a production partner after viewing her synopsis of her script on the R-101 disaster.

The meeting came about as a result of Ms Spurling's success as one of the six winners of the Face-2-Face competition sponsored by British Airways and backed by the Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation.

The R-101 was a British airship which crashed in France on October 5, 1930, killing 48 people, during its first overseas flight.

Ms Spurling's screenplay is entitled "The Empire of the Air" and is based in John G. Fuller's book, "The Airmen Who Wouldn't Die".

Mr Neal is the co-founder of Artists Studio, designed to offer a facility to help writers in pitching ideas to broadcasters and commissioners, securing finance for shows and maximising distribution revenues. "He said he's very interested in the synopsis and may be interested in becoming a production partner," Ms Spurling said of the meeting with Mr Neal. "He told me a lot about the fiction film-making industry."

Among the things she learned was the names of several directors considered by Mr. Neal to be the most likely to be interested in Ms Spurling's screenplay.

One of the big film-industry names to have a particular interest in airships is Richard Dreyfuss, Mr Neal told her. "He was on a jury with me at the Bermuda International Film Festival, so maybe he'll be interested," Ms Spurling said.

Ms Spurling spent a useful hour and a half with Mr. Neal and later had lunch with British Broadcasting Corporation documentary officer Dimitri Collingwood.

Ms Spurling has made several documentaries of note in the past, including "Rare Bird" in 2006, about the rediscovery of the cahow more than 300 years after it had thought to have become extinct.

"Dimitri gave me lots of names and told me how I should pitch a documentary," she said.

Ms Spurling said winning the trip to London had proved fruitful for her.

"I think it's been very helpful in making those contacts I will need to take it to the next level," she said.