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The Echuca-Moama author’s latest book will be made into an animated film for the silver screen.
Jay Ahn, who was executive producer on the 2014 animated comedy The Nut Job, has secured the film rights to the children’s book.
The project is a tri-party collaboration between the US, South Korea and Australia, with Ahn producing alongside Tristan Barr and David Gim of Continuance Pictures, as well as Ferris as script consultant.
“This story is very close to my heart because it is set in places I’ve lived and has characters based on people I love, so I can’t tell you how excited I am that this is happening,” she said.
Launched in Echuca last year, the book follows Janomi, a fairy who is forbidden to talk to humans, until her grandfather, the king of the fairy colony, is captured by silver spiders, and she desperately needs help.
She places her trust in 10-year-old country kid Gemma and tells her she must keep the fairies’ existence a secret.
But when Gemma’s school rival, Nina, steals the secretly recorded footage of Janomi and uploads it onto YouTube, a media frenzy explodes in sleepy Nullaboo.
“It’s a fun, magical, action-adventure story that shows what could happen if fairies were discovered, but it also so much more,” Ferris said.
“This story shows how dangerous one ill-intended person can be to the masses if they are in a position of influence.”
Ahn, through MBL Media (Korea), brokered the book deal with Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown on behalf of Ferris.
Burbank-based Astro-Nomical Entertainment, co-founded by Chris Henderson and Ahn, specialises in animated series and feature films for family audiences.
Astro-Nomical will closely work together as a sister company of MBL Korea with the development and production of the IP.
“There couldn’t be a more timely piece for the world with the current state of affairs,” Ahn said.
“Not only from creative and production but from distribution and marketing perspective, I want to bring it up to a different dimension.”
“As the productions of our live-action have slowed with COVID we are excited to be taking a different direction in the safe hands of Jay Ahn,” Barr said.
“This is the first of many Korean projects I plan to bring to Australia as there is an untapped market of quality practitioners,” Gim said.
Ferris said she was over the moon with the film deal, after working with Continuance Pictures on a number of projects for the past 18 months.
“The next steps include development of material and attaching a director,” she said.
“Animation requires an intricate process with lots of creatives, including character design, landscape art, script and story development, so I'm really looking forward to being part of this.”
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