Simon Mayo’s ‘Itch’ Gets Australia TV Adaptation Through Komixx

Young adult, action-adventure TV series “Itch” has begun shooting in Western Australia through indie film and TV producer Komixx Entertainment. The show, to be delivered next year, will be broadcast in Australia by ABC ME, part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and distributed worldwide by ABC Commercial.

The 10-part series is a TV adaptation of former BBC 2 Radio broadcaster Simon Mayo’s best-selling teen novel of the same name, after Komixx acquired the rights in 2013. “Itch” tells the tale of a science obsessed teenager who discovers a new chemical element with extraordinary powers and is forced to go on the run to protect it from a sinister organization which wants it for its own ends.

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It was developed for television by Komixx’s head of development, Melanie Halsall and writer Dan Berlinka. Other writing credits go to Ron Elliott, Heather Wilson, Jessica Brookman and Roger Monk. The producers are Amanda Morrison (“The Art of Ian Strange”,) MD of Komixx in Australia, Tania Chambers (“A Few Less Men”) and Melanie Halsall. Jan Stradling is the ABC’s executive producer.

The show is being directed by Renee Webster (The Heights) and Nicholas Verso (Nowhere Boys, Boys in the Trees). The cast of relative newcomers includes Samuel Ireland, Melanie Wozniak, Charles Russell, Kylah Day, Harrison Popple, Henry Mendez and Keala Kern. Filming will take place across Perth, Albany and the Great Southern Region of Western Australia.

“Itch” is a Komixx Entertainment Production in association with Feisty Dame Productions, with the assistance of Screen Australia, Screenwest, Lotterywest, the Western Australian Regional Film Fund and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“This high octane, fast paced, action adventure series is aimed at primary-to-early secondary school kids. As well as being about good and evil, science, nature and the environment, ‘Itch’ also champions intelligence, knowledge, courage, friendship, working together and growing up,” said Morrison.

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