ANZAC Girls’ Sara West and Mystery Road’s Samara Weaving head the cast of Bad Girl, writer-director Fin Edquist’s psychological thriller which starts shooting in Perth on August 31.
West plays 16-year-old Amy, the title character who has to fight for her adoptive parents when her new best friend Chloe (Weaving) tries to supplant her.
Playing the parents are Felicity Price, who stars in Joel Edgerton’s US thriller The Gift and her partner Kieran Darcy-Smith’s upcoming Western By Way of Helena, and Benjamin Winspear (House of Hancock, Rake, The Babadook).
The film marks a departure in tone for Edquist, who scripted the animated family pics Maya the Bee and Blinky Bill: The Movie, which opens in cinemas on September 10.
The producers are Steve Kearney (Oddball, My Mistress), Bruno Charlesworth (Good Vibrations, The Extra) and Tenille Kennedy. This is the feature producing debut for Kennedy, who co-produced three chapters of Tim Winton’s The Turning and was associate producer on Goalpost Pictures’ ABC telemovie An Accidental Soldier.
Kearney tells IF the idea for the film was sparked by a news story in 2005 about a girl who set out to attract men on the internet.
The financiers include Screen West and the MIFF Premiere Fund. Curious will distribute in Australia and Arclight Films is handling international sales.
Kearney is a firm believer in using US script consultants on his projects. Meg LeFauve, who co-wrote Pixar’s hit Inside Out, was script editor on Stuart McDonald’s rustic comedy Oddball, which opens on September 24. Pat Verducci and Stephen Cleary are script consultants on Bad Girl, working with script editors Simon van der Borg and Joe Forte.
The four week shoot in the Swan Valley, Kalamunda and Serpentine areas will have a crew of 40 including 35 West Australians.
WA Culture and the Arts Minister John Day said, “The film will advance not only Tenille’s career, but many of the young crew." Day said seven feature films are set to be shot in the state in the next six months including Ben C. Lucas’ OtherLife, Rachel Perkins’ Jasper Jones and Simon Baker’s Breath.