Ludo Studio, which produces hit animated series Bluey, has secured development funding from Screen Australia to make a new live-action family feature called Staycation.

The comedy-focused movie is about a dysfunctional family that has to settle for its first-ever staycation when its dream holiday is cancelled. It marks Ludo’s first foray into feature films. Studio co-founder Daley Pearson (pictured left) is directing and writing a script with Donick Cary (Parks and Recreation) and Kim Huffman Cary, while his fellow co-founder Charlie Aspinwall (pictured right) focuses on producing the project.

Screen Australia has also granted development funding to a pair of family-friendly animated comedy series from Aussie prodco Big Serious Studios. Goo Zoo is a 26-episode microbiology-themed show co-written by Charlotte Rose Hamlyn (Kangaroo Beach), who’ll co-direct the project with David Peers (Happy Feet 2). Set in a petri dish world populated by microbes, the series is driven by the slapstick misadventures of Tina the amoeba. Thinkadinks, meanwhile, revolves around a team of crusaders who solve puzzles in a fantastical environment. Peers is directing this one, as well as writing scripts with Hamlyn, John Armstrong and Roshelle Fong.

The amount of support received by the three projects remains undisclosed, but it draws on a Screen Australia funding round valued at US$717,000.