User:John Ranko/Freedom Deep

Freedom Deep' is feature length film written and directed by Aaron Stevenson. The screenplay was written in 1994- 1995 and the first version was released by 1st miracle Pictures (Menahem Golan Yoram Globus) in 1998-99. A later version was released on Amazon.com as a Final Directors Version in 2009. The premise concerns a prophet named Liam who attempts to journey his 'book' across the wasteland back to the remnants of civilization following an undisclosed global war.

Production
It was produced entirely in Australia by Fatal Impact Productions and was there third feature film. They have also produced the feature length documentaries 'Welcome to Wherever You Are - A Documentary Celebrating the Mad Max Mythology! and Biting Bullets&mdash;A Documentary Celebrating Death by Rock Excess!.

Freedom Deep was produced on 35mm for the 2018 scenes & Super 16mm for the flashback 1998 scenes. The later Final Directors Version makes reference to September 11 as a prophetic date from 2001 onwards. The Director of Photography was Karl von Moller, sound design was by AFI award winner Neil McGrath, Production Design was by Travis Jackson. The soundtrack was by Goya's Child and orchestral arrangements by Joseph Douglas. The films voice over narration is by Australian vetran actor Harold Baigent who was the voice at the beginning and end of Mad Max 2 The Road Warrior. Freedom Deep was his final performance. Stars are Peter Benson, Lorelei Gardner, Charles Wood, Ross Simmons, Oliver Dutton.

Book of Eli
Freedom Deep has become a recent film of interest due to the Hollywood produced The Book of Eli which stars Denzel Washington and was written as a spec script by Gary Whitta and boasts similar themes, content and visual references. There has been a great deal of debate and discussion about Freedom Deep over the years and mythologisation. Aaron has traditionally shied away from discussing the movie as this has added to the films myth. He recently stated to Encore magazine that the only reason he is giving interviews now is because of the emergence of The Book of Eli which he first became aware of whilst that film was in pre-production.

Reception
"An amazing piece of work!" Wim Wenders. The film has attained a strong cult following and much has been documented about its troubled low budget production history.