T he film adaptation of the book Tomorrow, When the War Began was generally well received in Australia and executive producer Matthew Street (Killer Elite, Bran Nue Dae) says it played incredibly well overseas. 
Sadly, he says a few international distributors didn't put enough marketing behind it to make more people aware of the film. But knowing it had appeal was encouragement enough to create another reworking, this time for TV. 
Street stepped into the same role he had on the film for the TV series - based on the first book in a popular series of seven written by Australian John Marsden. 
Early on it was decided that the six-episode TV adaptation, which tells the tale of a group of friends waging a guerilla war against an army invasion, had to be a different iteration of the story.
Street says a lot of time was spent in story workshops. 
"We're not remaking the film, we're making a version of the book into television which was quite critical in our brief for the writers," he explains on set in Monbulk, Victoria.
"The underlying DNA is very true to the original story. In the movie and the books it's through Ellie's eyes but what we wanted to do was not tell it through Ellie's eyes - so we can be where she's not. 
 "Also, we brought in for TV the adult characters and the adult stories which are not in the books. I think having the added characters of what the parents are doing and the families really help to improve the narrative and the storytelling."
As well as differentiating in the narrative, Street says the locations used to create the fictional town of Wirrawee also gives the TV show a very different feel to the film. 
"It's a mix how we've joined it together, all those locations that are physically in about a 100km or 120km radius of each other," he says.
"The main street is Clunes, the showgrounds Werribee and there's a mix of how it's stitched together and people's houses are all in various locations like Wonga Park and parts of outer Melbourne. Barwon Heads is our bridge into the town ... it's a very different-looking bridge to what we envisaged and did in the film which was in the Hunter Valley in NSW."
A fresh young cast, supported by established actors such as Sibylla Budd (The Secret Life of Us), Deborah Mailman (Redfern Now) and James Stewart (Packed to the Rafters), also distinguishes the series from the film. 
"We've actually got the age of the cast close to the age of the characters in the book, so 17, 18. It's been amazing. 
"We had thousands of people audition for the roles, went through and found some incredible new young talent from Australia which is exciting for our industry," Street says. 
WAAPA graduate Andrew Creer was one of the young actors to join the cast as the cocky Kevin Holmes. "It was the first book series I ever got through actually," Creer laughs. "As a kid I grew up on a farm in Tamworth and I didn't read many books. I think I had the attention span of a squirrel. So for me getting through a book series was a big deal. 
"All my friends had read it too, so it was awesome getting the opportunity to audition for it at WAAPA and then getting a call-up to play Kevin."
Creer also was impressed with the rest of the cast that comprises the group of teens who return from a camping trip to discover that to save everything precious they must sacrifice so much.
"They're all such gentle, kind souls, everyone is so similar to their characters it's so funny the dynamic in the group and how that relates to the story."
At the start of the teenager's journey Kevin is  a flight rather than fight guy and Creer says Marsden's storytelling helped him identify with and understand the decisions his character makes. 
"He actually starts fighting a lot more because he gains more courage but at first he, like most people, will want to stay away from the war," Creer explains. "I think there's a lot justified by the writing and I totally understand his decisions throughout the whole story. It's really well written."
 Street believes the TV adaptation is "where the imagination of the reader would want to be" and readers who read the series when they were young  "would like to know the parents' stories".
 Creer agrees that the addition of the parents' stories elevates the TV series to a place beyond the film and books. 
"The TV show is really focused around the relationship between the kids, the families and their lands.
"It's really personal rather than just the big Hollywood blowing-up stuff, I mean there's that, but it's more about the relationship they suffer through and the trials and tribulations they face in the series."
Annelies Gartner visited Melbourne as a guest of the ABC. 
Tomorrow, When the War Began  airs on   April 23 at 7.30pm on ABC3. The Tomorrow series is published by Pan Macmillan.