Genre: Live Action

Cast: TBA

Key Features: Live Action, Based on a true story, Diversity of Location, Extreme Sports, 

Movie Websites: http://www.theperfectwave.co.za. 

Synopsis: Based on a true story, The Perfect Wave, is a family oriented, coming of age movie, set against thrilling backgrounds of the international twenty-something world of tropical and exotic surfing in New Zealand, Bali, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the Island of Mauritius.

Ian McCormack leads a mundane life in Christchurch New Zealand. He is a twenty-four year-old latent teenager who sets off to find out who he really is by breaking away from his family and heading off in search of the perfect wave. He drags his closest surfing buddy along with him, tempting fate and the call for a wild adventure. His father supports his adventure but his overly protective, religious mother refuses to give her blessing and reluctantly sends him on his way tearfully reminding him if he gets in trouble, turn to God.

Ian’s search is a broader quest, beyond the next wave and next party, whose allure has captivated his friend early on their journey.  Ian discovers himself yearning for something other than the communal surf-party life that satisfies his travelling companion; he wants, like so many young people, to go feral, to let life lead him and see what surprises it will provide.

Ian pushes his friend to continue with him on the journey through the wilderness of the Australian outback and then north into Indonesia for a radical cultural shift, filled with new and exotic experiences.  In Bali, he is seduced and falls into the arms of a beautiful Dutch girl, Anneke, a Buddhist and fellow traveler who seems to have found what he’s been searching for.

Ian leaves his friend and heads off with Anneke, plumbing the depths of intimacy as they travel through Bali and Malaysia joining together in their search for real meaning of life.  Having followed Anneke to some of the most beautiful parts of the world seeking some kind of deeper fulfillment, Ian continues to find himself empty and unable to draw what he needs from her.  They continue on in their quest, together, now following Ian’s lead as they head to Africa in his search for the perfect wave.

In South Africa, they are reunited with the surf-partying community as well as some old friends from the road.  Ian feels he has never totally conquered Anneke’s heart and confuses her free spirit with betrayal.  After he accuses her of unfaithfulness with one of his old friends, she leaves him in pieces. They go their separate ways and Ian finds himself once again alone.   Realizing his mistake, Ian heads to Mauritius were he believes he will find Anneke, rekindle the flame and surf the legendary outer reef, which some have suggested may be the ultimate perfect wave, the one he’s been dreaming about his entire life.   On reaching Mauritius, he discovers Anneke is gone, but instead finds a communal beach paradise, with incredible surf, friends and a beautiful girl who willingly gives herself to Ian’s thirsty soul. Ian begins to accept life as a transient existence of ongoing experiences where peace and fulfillment emerge from the acceptance of whatever the world throws his way.

Ian, finally satisfied, enjoys this paradise and a world that conspires to deliver all that he could hope for.  His search nears conclusion when the conditions ripen and an approaching storm threatens the resort community while setting its course to ignite the outer reef into an epic surf break and provide the perfect wave he has been searching for.  If nothing changes, the following morning all of Ian’s dreams and wishes will finally come true.   After making plans to paddle out to the reef the next day, Ian receives a call from his younger brother back home with wonderful news of his engagement and coming wedding.  Ian is delighted and promises to return home for the party, now on the verge of having accomplished what he had set out for.

That night, Ian joins some friends on a night dive for lobster and in the dark water of the reef, encounters a group of dreaded box jellyfish with venom so virulent; one sting will kill. Ian is stung five times before he knows what’s happening and struggles back to shore, where he is abandoned and left without hope.

Somehow, summoning up every ounce of strength left, Ian is able to beg and plead for help, arriving first at a hotel and then by ambulance to the hospital, where on route, he realizes he is going to die. With nowhere else to turn, he remembers his mother’s parting words to call on God in times of trouble and desperation.  He fumbles his way through the Lord’s Prayer, accepting in whatever way he knows, God’s grace in the back of the ambulance.

At the Mauritian hospital, the doctor does all he can, but it is too late.  Ian is pronounced dead shortly after his arrival and is covered with a sheet and wheeled off to the morgue.

Ian awakes finding himself out of his own body, in complete darkness in a cold and strange place.  Voices full of hate and disgust speak to him in despair when he cries out and tell him he is in a place without hope.  As Ian struggles with what has happened and is lifted out of the darkness on a perfect wave a light, rising to heaven at the feet of Christ, where he is forgiven, redeemed and given the choice to stay in true paradise or return to tell the world his story.

Remembering his mother’s love and wanting to share what he has seen, Ian chooses to return. Fifteen minutes after the doctor had pronounced him dead, he awakens in the morgue, terrifying a morgue physician and a nurse who runs from the hospital.

Ian walks out of the hospital and returns to his community of friends who are already mourning the news of his death.  To their shock, he shares his story and in the morning
returns home to New Zealand, his plane rising over the outer reef where he sees the most incredible perfect wave breaking beneath him.

That true story happened 28 years ago. Stop and think about it for a minute …how many people have you heard about, or know, that have personally met their Creator and lived to talk about it? Now meet someone who has and you will be able to live his amazing and extraordinary experience for yourself.