Filming completed on Bad Behaviour

Filming has completed in Victoria on the four-part boarding school drama Bad Behaviour, announced yesterday by Stan.

Produced by Matchbox Pictures, the series is based on the book of the same name by Australian writer Rebecca Starford.

Jana McKinnon (We Children from Bahnhof Zoo) stars as scholarship student Jo, who arrives at Silver Creek for a year of character building at the wilderness campus of an exclusive girl’s boarding school. Only to find herself in a dormitory of the most volatile and the most vulnerable.

Joining the cast are Markella Kavenagh (Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), Yerin Ha (Halo), Tuuli Narkle (Mystery Road), Dan Spielman (Stateless), Diana Glenn (Harrow), Mantshologane Maile (The PMs Daughter), Erana James (The Wilds) and introducing Melissa Kahraman, Daya Czepanski, Abbey Morgan, Bronte Locke, Malaynee Hayden and Jessica Lu.

Alastair McKinnon, Managing Director, Matchbox Pictures, said: “Featuring a sensational cast of rising global stars, Bad Behaviour delves into a darker side of the school experience and the reverberations that can carry through to adulthood. This is a story that will resonate with audiences all over the world who are either living it or remember too well the pressures of fitting in and getting on in order to survive high school.”

Corrie Chen, Director, said: “Bad Behaviour is a wild and poetic show that is propelled by performances of cinematic ambition. I have never felt so intoxicated by an incredible cast who continued to reach emotionally raw and surprising places at two different age groups. This is a story about growing up and the power of unspoken female desire – and what it feels like to finally have that heard.”

Amanda Higgs, Producer, Matchbox Pictures, said: “Bad Behaviour questions who we really are when we dare to look at ourselves through the eyes of others. Its starting point is the intense intimacy of female teen friendship at an age where approval becomes our obsession. Where the excruciating ambiguity of what lies between good and bad behaviour can undo us all. To adapt a story of this particular nature and emotional specificity requires people who recognise these characters and actively champion them. We have been truly fortunate to work with an undeniably compelling ensemble, led by the incomparable Jana McKinnon.”

Cailah Scobie, Chief Content Officer at Stan, said: “Bad Behaviour promises to be an extraordinary Stan Original Series, and the talented creative team secured an outstanding young, diverse cast to bring this story to life. Matchbox Pictures producer Amanda Higgs, director Corrie Chen and the cast of Bad Behaviour have done an incredible job of crafting this premium drama, and we look forward to sharing it with our Australian viewers soon.”

It will screen later this year.

Exploring the intensity of female friendships, ritualistic rites, emerging sexuality and a ruthless struggle for power, Bad Behaviour plays out across past and present timelines. The series reveals that even ten years on from this formative year away at camp, no one has escaped unscathed – and most are scarred for life.

Led by an all-female creative team, the series is written by Pip Karmel (Total Control, New Gold Mountain) and Magda Wozniak (Mustangs FC, The Heights), produced by Amanda Higgs (The Secret Life of Us, Seven Types of Ambiguity), and directed by Corrie Chen (New Gold Mountain, Homecoming Queens).

The series is produced by Matchbox Pictures, which is part of Universal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group. Major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Stan, with development and production support from VicScreen. Distribution is handled by NBCUniversal Global Distribution. In Australia, Bad Behaviour will screen on Stan.