$15,000 for Black Widow film project

Helen Milner. Photo / Martin Hunter

A film project dramatising the "Black Widow" murder case of Helen Milner, who poisoned her husband, has received taxpayer funding.

The tele-feature, tentatively entitled Black Poison, is being worked on by Wellington production company KHF Media for TV One.

The Emmy award-winning pair of David Stubbs and Thomas Robins have been given $15,000 in development funding by NZ on Air, according to its 2013/14 annual report.

Robins is currently working on the script, Stubbs confirmed yesterday. But he refused to divulge much more on the "very interesting" movie plans.

"It's still in the very early development stages of writing and research," Stubbs said.

KHF Media will decide later whether a full funding application will be lodged with NZ on Air.

Milner, dubbed the "Black Widow", was found guilty by a High Court jury in December 2013 of poisoning her second husband, Phil Nisbet, in 2009.

The Crown proved that Milner, 50, laced his evening meal with crushed sedatives. She then faked his death to look like suicide, motivated by a $250,000 life insurance payout.

She was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Last year, the Court of Appeal rejected Milner's claim Mr Nisbet had taken his own life. Next month, the Supreme Court will hear her application for leave to appeal. NZME.