The small town of Bunnaloo is a long way from Tinsletown, but a book about a fairy who lives in a small NSW town just like it will be getting the major movie studio treatment soon enough.

Nullaboo Hullabaloo, Fleur Ferris's tale of Janomi — a fairy hiding from humans in a sleepy town that very much resembles Ferris's former home town of Bunnaloo, until she is outed to the world via YouTube — is being made into an animated feature film.

Ferris, a former Melbourne police officer and paramedic who only turned to writing after moving to regional New South Wales, said she had been pinching herself ever since hearing about the movie deal.

"I was screenshotting all these things just to show myself the next day that it was true," she said.

Ferris said the story of Janomi, who is forbidden to talk to humans but is forced out into the open when secretly recorded footage of her is uploaded onto YouTube, was a departure from her usual writing genre.

However she said, Nullaboo Hullabaloo — her fifth book and the first she had written for younger readers — was heartfelt.

Country kids 'celebrated'

Zoe Walton, publisher at Penguin Random House Australia, said they key to the story's success was that Ferris's personal story was intertwined with that of Nullaboo Hullabaloo's characters — and with Bunnaloo, the town on which Nullaboo is loosely based.

"It will be wonderful to see country kids and towns celebrated," she said.

"What I loved most about this story is the generosity of the community and its colourful characters — seeing everyone working together, kids and adults, to solve a problem is so heartening."

The project of turning the book into a feature film was being jointly undertaken by production companies from America, South Korea and Australia.

Producer Jay Ahn, from MBL Media, said the story could not have been timelier "not only from creative and production but from a distribution and marketing perspective".

Ferris said, while script development had already begun, casting and the search for a director were yet to happen.

"A lot of names are being thrown around, which is really exciting," she said.

"He's looking for an A-list director."

Bunnaloo the 'lucky charm'

Ferris grew up on a small farm in Patchewollock, north-west Victoria, before moving to Melbourne and working as a police officer.

She later became a paramedic in regional South Australia and Victoria before moving back into farm life at Bunnaloo with her husband and three daughters.

"When we arrived at Bunnaloo, it was just flat, and it was in drought," she said.

"It was a shock to the system and the old house hadn't been lived in for eight years.

"It was quite run down and the garden was non-existent."

The farm, where she wrote the book, was the inspiration for where the story takes place.

Ferris has since moved with her family to Moama on the NSW-Victorian border.

Her three daughters were not only her biggest supporters but had helped inspire her stories.

She said they were thrilled about the book being turned into a movie.

Second novel eyed for big screen

There are promising signs Nullaboo Hullabaloo will not be the only book by Ferris adapted to the big screen.

Her young adult novel Found is also in the pipeline for a screen adaptation.

"It hasn't been announced so I can't talk too much about that one," she said.

Ferris said it was hard to believe it all started in a small, run-down farmhouse.

"It turned out to be my lucky charm going out there," she said.

"Maybe I need to go out there and write my next one."