After months of anticipation, director Matthew Holmes has finally released a full sneak peek into his “passion project,” The Legend of Ben Hall.
With a segment on the Today Show, the 134 minute feature film, based on outlaw bushranger Ben Hall, is quickly gaining traction across platforms.
“We’ve had a huge reaction from Facebook, our social media pages exploded yesterday,” says Holmes.
“We’ve had people ringing up cinemas and web searching ‘Ben Hall’.”
Holmes’ goal is for outlaw bushranger Ben Hall to be as nationally recognised as Ned Kelly.
“I don’t want anyone in Australia to be asking who he is.”
In 2007, Holmes discovered the story of Ben Hall and his legendary death 20km from Forbes.
His interest and passion for the 1800’s bushranger led him on a nine year project concluding this December, when his feature film is set to be released.
Originally planned to be a short film, extra funding allowed Holmes to go all out and create a motion picture that will put the Lachlan Valley on the map.
“I want it to be a movie people associate Forbes with,” he said.
After years in the making, Holmes is ecstatic with the outcome and very grateful for the opportunity he has been given to bring his vision to life.
The Australian action/ biography/ drama film will be screened locally in November.
“We’ve got big plans for the Forbes premiere,” Holmes said.
The final was shot over 11 weeks in 2015 across two states.
It was a big journey for producer-director Matthew Holmes who launched the first crowdfunding campaign for the film 16 months ago.
The short ‘30 minute’ film grew in length and capability, attracting well-known Australian actors like John Orcsik (Cop Shop, Underbelly) among others and securing an international theatrical release.
Holmes said cast and crew had mixed emotions about the filming coming to an end with everyone exhausted, but pleased.
