Women from the Yorkshire Dales who stripped for a glamour calendar are due to sign contracts later this week to have their story told in a film.

And three of them will be jetting off to New York next month for the launch of an American version of the now famous calendar.

In addition, the ladies of the Rylstone & District Women's Institute near Skipton will be pictured in a variation of their naked poses on three massive billboards in London, Manchester and Glasgow advertising a soap powder. They decided to pose for the pictures after receiving numerous offers to get involved with advertising.

As revealed in the Telegraph & Argus last month, the women are in the final stages of negotiation with British film makers AB Film and Television for a big screen version of their rise to international fame with the fundraising calendar.

It was produced in memory of John Baker, a former Yorkshire Dales National Park officer, who died of leukaemia. His wife Angela, 53, posed as Miss February.

Tricia Stewart - Miss October in the original calendar - said: "The film companies are calling us hot property.

"We have had about ten offers from American film companies but we said no because we wanted it to be a British company with a British cast. I think the film company has some backing from America, but otherwise it is completely British.

"All being well, details should be finalised and we will sign later this week."

The 50-year-old said she could not say how much money the US calendar, the advert and the film were worth but it would all go towards fighting leukaemia.

The Leukaemia Research Fund has already benefited to the tune of £330,000 from the sale of the original calendar.

"The film is going to be based on the spirit of the calendar - why we did it and what happened after that," she said

The group has already taken America by storm with newspaper articles and slots on TV.

The US publication of the calendar, which contains three new photographs, is due to be launched on April 25, with simultaneous sales in the UK.

Leading American publisher Workman has decided on an initial print run of 85,000 copies - only 3,000 less than the original calendar sold in a whole year.

Mrs Stewart will be off to New York on April 24 with Angela Baker and the oldest model, 60-year-old Beryl Bamforth, for a week-long schedule of book shop appearances and TV and radio chat shows.

"We would like to think that it could help us make a million pounds - that would be wonderful," she said. "There has been a great deal of interest shown in the USA."

The decision to produce an American version was sparked following thousands of e-mail requests after the worldwide reports of the success of the UK calendar.

The money raised will be divided between the Leukaemia Society of America and the Leukaemia Research Fund in Britain.

A spokesman for Workman said: "All royalties from the sale of this Workman edition will go to leukaemia research."

The new calendar - price £8.99 - will run from June 2000 to December 2001. It will feature the same photographs, but include others showing the launch in April 1999 at the Devonshire Arms in Cracoe, a group shot of the women, a photograph of the hand-over of the cheque to the Leukaemia Research Fund earlier this year and a centrefold of them in bathrobes.

Mrs Stewart said the group had been amazed at the speed of events since the calendar went on sale. "None of us ever imagined all this would happen," she said. "I think the reasons we did it has touched a lot of people - everyone has experienced cancer or tragedies."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.