For writer/director Matthew Holmes, finishing touches are still being put on the movie with another trailer to be released before Christmas.

The Melbourne-based filmmaker is hoping to release the film some time around February/ March 2016 depending on the completion of the edit and still plans to hold the premiere in Forbes.

“It is currently still in post-production and we are all aiming towards an early 2016 finish,” he said. 

“We can’t wait for the Australian premiere in Forbes.”

The film, which traces a microcosm of Hall’s eventful, young life, has a who’s who of the Australian film industry attached to it including Pia Grace Moon from Channel Seven’s ‘Winner’s and Losers’ among the plethora of talented cast members.

Yet no one can argue that Jack Martin as the notorious bushranger carries the film with all eyes on him when the movie is eventually released next year.

Martin, who is also a talented musician among his many other credits, gives arguably one of his best performances according to Holmes with his riveting and real portrait of Hall.

Hall operated with his gang during one of the most prolific periods of bushranging in Australian history, committing more than 600 crimes at the height of the gold rush from 1862 to 1865.

The gang stole racehorses, robbed villages and held up mail coaches yet he had no criminal record until his life fell apart. His wife ran away with his friend and took her young son with her forcing Hall into depression and an abandoning of his work.

“He became the friend of the highly-successful career criminal Frank Gardiner,” Holmes said.

“His descent from there was fascinating. Because Hall was somewhat of a reluctant criminal.”

Yet while Hall never took a life unless his own was threatened, endearing him to many, his gang members didn’t live by the same code of ethics. 

“His companions killed policemen and that made Hall an accomplice,” Holmes said.

At their peak, the gang covered some 20,000 square miles as they roamed across the state making them hard to catch.

“Our film however focuses on the last nine months of Hall’s life when his criminal career was at it’s most critical,” Holmes said.

“The movie is jam-packed with action, adventure, tragedy, betrayal and romance.

“We’ve attempted to make an epic Western on a tiny budget and had to build all our own sets and props as well as source period accurate costumes and weapons.”

And for the naysayers, Holmes can assure them that authenticity has and still is his ‘goal’ with one of the foremost experts on Ben Hall’s history working as a script consultant.

For Ben Hall extra, Gold Trails Re-enactment Group president, founder of the Gold Trails Tourism Project and Young man Kim Johnson, the experience of being involved in the film as well as conveying some stories about Hall to Holmes was a real buzz.

“We filmed some of the movie at Jugiong not far from Black Springs where some of these events took place,” said Johnson.

“There were 25 extras from a range of towns including Young, Harden, Cootamundra and other surrounding areas.

“It was tremendous, as was the support from Young Shire Council who have invested into this film,” he said.

“We all can’t wait to see it!”

The film is part of a proposed trilogy with other subjects John Vane and Hall’s criminal mentor Frank Gardiner featuring.

Gardiner, whose history is more expansive than most, is also credited with breaking out of Cockatoo Island prison with Fred Ward, more commonly known as Thunderbolt, after Mary Ann Bugg swam across to the island to help them escape.

Gardiner eventually made his way to California and ran a saloon in San Francisco’s Barbary Coast.

Hall was not so lucky. He and the others realised that to survive they would have to leave NSW. 

They first retreated to an isolated area on the Goobang Creek, northwest of Forbes, intending to gather fresh horses and provisions for a long journey northwards. 

Their whereabouts were reported to the police by ‘Goobang Mick’ Coneley, a man who had earlier promised to give the gang assistance and protection. 

In late April Hall temporarily separated from his companions, intending to meet them again a few days later at the Goobang Creek. But this time there were police waiting, hidden in the bush. 

At dawn on May 5, Hall was ambushed by eight well-armed policemen. 

He was shot dead as he emerged from his campsite and ran to reach his horses.

Ben Hall’s body was taken back to Forbes where an inquest was held by the Police Magistrate. 

He was buried in the Forbes cemetery on Sunday, May 7, 1865.