Adam Spellicy is a screenwriter based in Melbourne. Born in Adelaide, South Australia, he spent his formative years in the New South Wales mining town of Broken Hill, where Wake In Fright was filmed (and which was every bit as frightening as its filmic alter-ego “Bundanyabba”). He credits that experience with his enduring fascination for dark, mysterious stories.
Adam spent the better part of two decades as (variously) a graphic designer, advertising copywriter, musician and music video director before becoming a filmmaker. He has written and directed three short films: The Body Watchers (2009), Mystic Eyes (2009) and Keeper (2011), all of which have screened at local and international film festivals.
In 2016, Adam won the AWG’s Monte Miller (Long Form) Award and John Hinde Award For Best Unproduced Science Fiction Screenplay for the dystopian sci-fi feature script Mary, Mary, an honour he shared with co-writer Penelope Chai. The project was developed with funding from Screen Australia.
An early draft of his feature screenplay Race With The Devil, a biopic based on the life of 1950s rock and roll singer Gene Vincent, won 2nd Prize in the 2004 Nashville Screenwriters Conference script competition. In 2017, the project received development funding from Scripted Ink and was awarded RMIT’s McCraith House Residency courtesy of AWG Pathways and Film Victoria.
Adam’s latest short screenplay We’re Not Here completed principal photography in Mexico in late 2018. Directed by Bonnie Moir, it stars Benjamin Rigby and Pekka Strang and was Executive Produced by John Logan (screenwriter of Gladiator, Hugo, The Aviator and Alien: Covenant). Another short screenplay, The Bends, is currently in production, directed by Exit Films’ Tom Campbell with whom Adam is also developing a supernatural horror feature, Murder Ballad.
Other projects on Adam’s slate include a television adaptation of Anson Cameron’s novel The Last Pulse and a conspiracy thriller miniseries, Buladjang, both developed with producer Trevor Blainey.
