Kelli Cross has been named director's attachment on Rachel Perkins' Jasper Jones.
The Australian Directors Guild and Screen Australia announced Cross as an indigenous feature film attachment for 2015.
The attachment is part of the Director’s Attachment Scheme, an industry incentive program funded by Screen Australia and managed by the ADG for emerging feature film directors.
The film is an adaption of the award winning coming of age mystery novel by Craig Silvey.
Principal photography is set to commence in October in the south west of Western Australia.
The cast will include Levi Miller (Terra Nova, upcoming Pan, Blue Dog), Angourie Rice (These Final Hours, upcoming The Nice Guys) and Aaron McGrath (Glitch).
Cross said she was absolutely thrilled and honoured to be attached to Perkins.
"This is a fantastic opportunity with an experienced director of great sensibility and attention to detail to absorb and learn from," she said.
Cross has directed a number of short drama films and documentaries including “One Fine Day” and “Rainforest WarriorZ” which screened on ABC1. Her films have screened at various festivals such as ImagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival, Flickerfest and Revelation Perth International Film Festival.
The production designer on Jasper Jones is Herbert Pinter (Mao’s Last Dancer), while Margot Wilson (Bran Nue Dae) is the Costume Designer and Mark Wareham (Felony) will be director of photography.
The novel was adapted for the screen by Shaun Grant and Craig Silvey.
The film has been supported by a grant of $200,000 from the South West Development Commission and the production will be based in the town of Pemberton and filmed on location in the beautiful and haunting South West region.
The Director’s Attachment Scheme is provided to three directors per year.
In 2013, Grant Sputore was attached to Kriv Stenders on Kill Me Three Times, Stephen McCallum was attached the Tony Ayres on Cut Snake and Matthew Moore on the Robert Connolly directed film Paper Planes.
In 2014, Ariel Martin was attached to Neil Armfield on his feature Holding the Man and Dimitrios Pouliotis was attached to Matt Saville’s latest feature film A Month Of Sundays.
The ADG has also provided several opportunities for directors to be attached to TV Drama Series, with the first attachment on two Playmaker Media series House Husbands (Christopher Stollery attached to Grant Brown) and Love Child (Julietta Boscolo attached to Geoff Bennett). Currently Nora Niasari is attached to Emma Freeman on Matchbox Pictures’ Secret City.