Having already crossed over into gaming, VR and kidlit, the Scarygirl tween brand—created by Nathan Jurevicius—is now being adapted as a movie.

Production on the CG-animated feature film is currently underway in Queensland, and Scarygirl is expected to premiere in October 2023, distributed by Australia’s Madman Entertainment there and in New Zealand.

Aiming to appeal to a girl-skewing audience of kids ages eight to 12, the movie follows a talented and eccentric young girl who travels to a mysterious city to rescue her father, a compassionate giant octopus.

Scarygirl is a co-pro between Aussie studios Highly Spirited (Tales from Outer Suburbia) and Like A Photon Creative (Combat Wombat), with financial support from Screen Queensland. Jurevicius is on board as the production designer and will also share executive producer duties with John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda).

The Scarygirl brand originally launched as a vinyl toy range from Hong Kong toyco Flying Cat. It was later expanded into graphic novels (from US publisher Last Gasp), an online flash game, Xbox/Playstation and steam versions and even a VR experience from Melbourne-based tech company Zero Latency.

Highly Spirited producer Sophie Byrne tells Kidscreen that the characters and visual environment of the film will reflect the IP’s toyetic origin. “It has been animated digitally to faithfully recreate the look of stop motion and the limitations of how actual toys would move and function,” she says.

Byrne is producing with Like A Photon’s Kristen Souvlis, Nadine Bates and Ryan Greaves, and the pic’s voice cast is headlined by Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Jillian Nguyen (Clickbait), Rob Collins (Cleverman) and Anna Torv (Fringe).