The best-selling children's book series Deadly, written by Morris Gleitzman and Paul Jennings, will be turned into an animated TV series through a new children's drama fund run by the Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC).

Deadly is one of two projects selected by the government-backed FFC as part of its new Distinctly Australian Children's Drama Fund, which was set up to encourage the production of innovative programs with a particular appeal to Australian children. Deadly will be produced by Suzanne Ryan of SLR Productions, with David Evans directing and Yoram Gross's Geoff Watson sharing executive producer credits with Ryan. Deadly will screen on the Nine Network.

Author Morris Gleitzman said the adaptation would allow a new audience to enjoy his stories: "The book has been read by hundreds of thousands of children around the world, but a book is only the beginning of a screen project like this. I'm delighted that other creative Australians will now be bringing the story to an even larger audience."

The second project selected through the Distinctly Australian fund is the 13-part Streetsmartz, which follows the adventures of wannabe music entrepreneur Vinne, and his friends and family. While it is a scripted drama, it will be shot as if the film crew were told to follow a group of kids around the streets of Fremantle on 13 consecutive Saturdays. Its impromptu, free-flowing style is expressly designed to provide something new for kids by breaking away from conventional drama formats.

Western Australian filmmaker Paul Barron (Parallax) will produce, with Mark De Friest (Saddle Club) and Steve Peddie (Parallax) directing. Nine's head of drama, Posie Graeme Evans, is executive producer.

The FFC has also selected the first cinema documentary for its feature film strand - a visually lush feature-length documentary titled Night, which will explore the universal nature of night and how we experience it. Brought together by a soundscape of voices - people talking about the pleasures, fears and dangers of the night - the film will utilise a range of visual styles, from time lapse photography to documentary interviews, and will move from the extremes of nature to Australian icons like the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Twelve Apostles.

The writer/director of Night, Lawrence Johnston, created the award-winning documentary Eternity (about the idiosyncratic man who wrote the word 'eternity' on the streets of Sydney) and also directed the award-winning feature Life. Johnston is producing Night with Lizzette Atkins.

"The FFC's new system of evaluating feature films makes it an exciting time for Australian filmmakers who want to deliver creative storytelling to audiences," Johnston said. "Hopefully it will not only boost our box-office but will strengthen Australian filmmaking internationally."

The CEO of the FFC, Brian Rosen, was excited that the FFC had found the first theatrical documentary for its feature film slate: "With the rise of cinema documentaries around the world, the FFC has been searching for an Australian project with a similar potential to work well for cinema audiences. I think Night has the scope and ambition to do just that." Rosen said.

Night has been selected by the FFC through its evaluation process. Films chosen through evaluation receive a Letter of Intent containing the terms and conditions of proposed FFC funding. The FFC board makes a formal commitment to fund evaluation projects only when the producers have satisfied the terms and conditions set out in the Letter.

A contemporary comedy/drama titled Clubland has also been selected through the latest round of feature film evaluation. British actor Brenda Blethyn (Secrets and Lies, Little Voice, Lovely and Amazing) will play a middle-aged entertainer whose brief rise as a comedy talent in the UK has evolved into performing raunchy comedy for Sydney clubland audiences. As the story develops, her son Tim is forced to make a choice between the mother who brought him up single-handed and his new, feisty girlfriend.

Clubland is produced by Rosemary Blight (Go Big, Small Claims, In the Winter Dark) directed by Cherie Nowlan (Thank God He Met Lizzie) and written by Keith Thompson (Wildside, Small Claims).

The third feature backed through evaluation is Little Fish (starring Cate Blanchett and Martin Henderson), which was previously approved under the FFC's distribution model but has been re-approved through evaluation with a new financing structure.

The feature film Jindabyne (director Ray Lawrence, producer Catherine Jarman, executive producer Philipa Bateman), which received a Letter of Intent following the FFC's July board meeting, has satisfied the required conditions in the letter and has been formally approved by the FFC board.

The FFC has also announced eight new documentaries. Rescue at Sea tells the story leading up to and following the 'children overboard' incident. The producers/directors/writers are Marsha Emerman and Nicky Tyndale-Biscoe, the executive producer is Terry Carlyon.

Part of the Team puts a magnifying glass on the sexual culture of the football scene. The director is Rebecca Barry, the producer is Michaela Perske.

Hilton Cordell's Dust to Dust goes behind-the-scenes of the death industry for an unflinching look at the secret business of preparing the dead for burial. Ian Walker and Alan Erson will direct and Chris Hilton and Ian Collie will produce.

Other documentaries in this recent slate of investment include The Battle of the Ugg, about a group of small manufacturers facing a legal battle against a US corporation claiming to own the word 'ugg' (producers Susan Lambert and Stefan Moore; director/writer Susan Lambert); Donkey in Lahore, a love story highlighting the issues of cross-cultural relationships (producer/director Faramarz K Rahber, executive producer Mark Chapman); The Minefield, about an unacknowledged disaster in Australian military history (producer Bernard Terry, director Richard Walker); Real Life Water Rats, following a group of highly-trained Tasmanian marine policemen (producers Craig Dow Sainter and Kath Symmons; directors/writers Varcha Sidwell and Steve Thomas); Sons of Gold, the story of US president Herbert Hoover and the Italians he hired to mine one of the richest goldfields in history (producer Marian Bartsch, director Franco di Chiera, writers Barry Strickland and Franco di Chiera.

In other news from the FFC, Ross Pearson has been recruited to fill the newly-created position of chief commercial officer. Ross worked at KPMG and then Thorn EMI in the 1980s and more recently worked as chief financial officer for TMS (Television Media Services), which owned Global TV and Val Morgan Cinema Advertising. For the past two years he has been acting chief financial officer for law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell.

For further information contact:

Victoria Buchan The Lantern Group 02 9383 4033

Anne Markey The Lantern Group 02 9383 4032

Feature Films

CLUBLAND - Letter of Intent only
RB Films Pty Ltd
Producer: Rosemary Blight
Director: Cherie Nowlan
Sales & Distribution: MovieHouse Entertainment (UK), Palace Films
Synopsis: A sexual coming of age comedy about a shy and inexperienced 20-year-old, his raucous comedienne mother, and his assertive, accidentally funny new girlfriend.

JINDABYNE
April Films Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Garry Charney, Philippa Bateman
Producer: Catherine Jarman
Director: Ray Lawrence
Writer: Beatrix Christian
Synopsis: Based on the Raymond carver short story So Close to Home, Jindabyne is a modern day adult ghost story.

NIGHT (Feature-length documentary) - Letter of Intent only
Circe Films Pty Ltd
Producers: Lizzette Atkins, Lawrence Johnston
Director/writer: Lawrence Johnston
Sales & Distribution: SBS Independent
Synopsis: Showing society in all its forms, people and places, urban and rural, in contemporary Australia, Night is a stunning and cinematic documentary, which explores the universal nature of night and how we experience the night. Night falls once every day and the darkness of the night affects us all.

Children's Television Drama

DEADLY (13 x 24 minute animation series)
SLR Productions Pty Ltd
Executive Producers: Suzanne Ryan, Geoff Watson
Producer: Suzanne Ryan
Director: David Evans
Writers: Jutta Goetze, Jacqueline Turnure
Sales & Distribution: Nine Network and Yoram Gross/EMTV
Synopsis: Based on the best selling book series by Australia's top two children's authors Morris Gleitzman and Paul Jennings. A story involving the quest for eternal youth, blue farts, marauding botty worms, pooper scooping, bad hair days, whale gizzards, two-headed giraffes and much much more..... Deadly is action packed, humorous, scary, bizarre and highly entertaining. Most of all - it's fun!

STREETSMARTZ (13 x 24 minute series)
Great Western Entertainment Pty Ltd
Executive producer: Posie Graeme Evans
Producer: Paul Barron
Directors: Mark De Friest, Steve Peddie, Ted McQueen-Mason
Writer: Ron Elliott, Coral Drouyn, Vanessa Yardley, Victor Gentile, Claire Bradshaw, Justin Cheek and Dave Warner
Sales & Distribution: Nine Network, GWE
Synopsis: Streetsmartz is a high energy, innovative quasi-reality kid's drama series set on the streets of Fremantle, full of humour, emotional stakes, and the belief that, when all is said and done, family - no matter what form it takes - is what really counts.

Documentaries

BATTLE OF THE UGG
Jumping Dog Productions Pty Ltd
Producers: Susan Lambert, Stefan Moore
Director/writer: Susan Lambert
Sales & Distribution: ABC TV
Synopsis: In country Australia, a group of small boot manufacturers are about to take on the fight of their lives. At the heart of the battle is a lowly sheepskin boot, the Ugg, which for over 70 years, has been a distinctively unfashionable Australian cultural icon. That is until, almost overnight, the Ugg became an international fashion sensation and the Aussies woke up to find they had been cut out of the action by a US corporation claiming to own the word Ugg.

DONKEY IN LAHORE
Faraway Productions Pty Ltd
Executive producer: Mark Chapman
Producer/director: Faramarz K Rahber
Sales & Distribution: SBS TV
Synopsis: Set in Pakistan and Australia, Donkey in Lahore is a love story highlighting the issues of cross-cultural relationships in the context of current political issues.

DUST TO DUST
Hilton Cordell & Associates Pty Ltd
Producers: Ian Collie, Chris Hilton
Directors: Ian Walker, Alan Erson
Sales & Distribution: ABC TV, TV New Zealand
Synopsis: Dust to Dust explores the behind-the-scenes of the death industry for an unflinching look at the secret business of preparing the dead for burial. There are larger than life characters and the stories to make your hair curl.

THE MINEFIELD
Glasshouse Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer: Bernard Terry
Director: Richard Walker
Writer: Walter Pearson
Sales & Distribution: SBS TV
Synopsis: The Minefield is the story of a great and still unacknowledged disaster in Australian military history which occurred in Southern Vietnam where the First Australian Task Force (1ATF) operated between 1966 and 1971.

PART OF THE TEAM
Red Ithaka Productions Pty Ltd
Producer: Michaela Perske
Director: Rebecca Barry
Sales & Distribution: SBS TV
Synopsis: Part of the Team is a documentary that will put a magnifying glass on the sexual culture of the football scene - groupies being a major component of that story. The documentary will give an insight into the unique world of football, sex, male team bonding and women's role in this world. Part of the Team will also put these insights against a backdrop of society attitudes and the values judgements about these activities.

REAL LIFE WATER RATS
Roar Film Pty Ltd
Producers: Craig Dow Sainter, Kath Symmons
Directors/writers: Varcha Sidwell, Steve Thomas
Sales & Distribution: ABC, ABC Content Sales
Synopsis: Real Life Water Rats is an observational documentary series that follows a group of highly-trained Tasmanian marine policemen and women as they scramble dive teams in raging seas, lead the war against illegal fishing and drug smuggling and keep a tenuous peace between professional and amateur fishermen.

RESCUE AT SEA
Fruitful Films Pty Ltd
Executive producer: Terry Carlyon
Producers/directors/writers: Marsha Emerman, Nicky Tyndale-Biscoe
Sales & Distribution: SBS
Synopsis: In October 2001 the passengers of SIEV 4 (the Olong) became notorious to the Australian public as the 'boat people who threw their children into the water'. However, the photos published as proof had cropped out the true story; they were in the water because their boat had sunk and the unidentified swimmers were courageous sailors from HMAS Adelaide who rescued them. This film tells the journeys of the sailors and the asylum seekers leading up to and beyond that rescue, and the days they spent together on board the Adelaide which forged relationships and empathy that all would remember forever.

SONS OF GOLD
Mago Films Pty Ltd
Producer: Marian Bartsch
Director: Franco di Chiera
Writers: Barry Strickland, Franco di Chiera
Sales & Distribution: ABC Content Sales, SBS TV
Synopsis: Sons of Gold is the story of US president Herbert Hoover and the Italians he hired to mine one of the richest goldfields in history.