The first two stories were fascinating and I promised myself to follow them up on my return. But it was the third that really stopped me in my tracks, it was a piece about John Brown and Zion Oil.

I read the piece through once with some incredulity and amusement, bearing in mind the age old joke about Moses heading into the middle east and making a wrong turn. Then I re-read it and realised what a wonderful and captivating story this was and how I needed to find out more and get in contact before someone else had the same idea.

Through my jet lag, I started to do some research and quickly found a number for Zion Oil’s offices in Caesarea, Israel. I called right away and left a message explaining who I was and what I wanted. Within the hour Zion’s CEO Richard Rinberg called me back and we spent an amazing 45 minutes or more discussing the project and how it all came about. By this stage I was hooked. Little did I know quite how much more there was to learn about this incredible tale.

Richard called a couple of days later to let me know that he would be passing through London en route from New York to Israel and would I like to meet with him. Of course I would came my instant response and so the following week we met up and this time spent 2 hours filling in some of the gaps that our conversation and my research had left in the story. We got on great. Richard told me all about his own history and how he became involved in the Zion Oil project then he told me more about John Brown and his journey through success, alcoholism, Christianity to the present day. I said I was hooked earlier, but by this stage I was totally on board – I wasn’t sure in what way, but I knew that my involvement was inevitable!

Next thing I knew was Richard called me to say that John Brown would be making a visit to Israel in the next few days and why didn’t I come and meet with him. Honestly, this couldn’t have come at a worse time. I was snowed under with other work commitments and taking time out to travel was not really an option. However, on the Friday before John’s visit my wife came home and I said to her “ I know this is not the greatest timing, but I really must go to Israel on Monday”. She was a little surprised but understood that I felt very strongly about it, which I did, I felt an unusual inertia pushing me to make the trip.

Needless to say, I went and spent two full days with John talking about every aspect of his life and the Zion Oil project. It was truly amazing and I quickly realised that I had only scratched the surface with Richard. More than this was the realisation that I absolutely had to make a film about this man and his incredible story.

The next question was a hard one. Make a documentary which finished in the present day open ended, or make a dramatised feature detailing John Brown’s history, the present day and the possible future? I tussled with this for some time seeing the respective merits of both approaches. Finally, I came to the conclusion that we didn’t have to limit ourselves to one or the other, we would make both!

So, with this in mind I made a second trip to Israel and scouted locations and laid the groundwork so that later we could come and shoot a trailer which would present people with an essence of the Zion story. Later, turned out to be a week later! I came out once again with a camera operator and a handful of questions and we shot what was planned to be a 7 minute taster to show to prospective documentary commissioners and film financiers. We got our 7 minutes and probably 30 more useable minutes towards the documentary piece and the editors cut it into the trailer you can now see on the website.

Everything about this project has happened in a way that has told me again and again that I’m doing the right thing. I believe that we now have the opportunity to make two wonderful films based on this amazing story. We have made an incredible start in a very short time and with your collective help we will bring this vision to life for the world to see.