Freeborn

In late 2004, during a shoot for a horror film by ReQuest entertainment entitled “They Feed”, the producer, Cory Turner, and his associates offered Anthony Brownrigg the opportunity to direct an upcoming low budget werewolf film they had written entitled “Devoured”.

Brownrigg looked at the project, and thought that the script needed some work. He already had an idea of what he wanted to see – but thought he would take a different approach. He thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback from ‘werewolf fans’ before he started work on the script. The people who buy the tickets might have some ideas on what they wanted to see. It might be worthwhile to ask the customer what they wanted.

He put a small message board on the Internet. He titled it “Building the Ultimate Werewolf”, and explained on the board what he wanted to do; to get the fans’ input, on what they wanted, and didn’t want, in a werewolf movie.

By the second day, the site posted over nine thousand hits. Turner and Brownrigg immediately began to conference; discussing the significance of letting the fans have a voice before scripting began. On the boards, various topics were raised. Topics such as, “How tall is a werewolf”, “What kind of fur does a werewolf have?” and “do werewolves have tails?” Due to the fan on-line discussions, the questions continued to get more and more detailed. Ideologies got more intricate, and it became more and more clear that the original script just wasn’t fitting. It didn’t have the scope the fans were looking for.

Brownrigg and Turner decided that an entirely new script was necessary. Brownrigg was already in agreement with what the fans were saying - it was more in keeping with his own vision. So the entire project became the property of Brownrigg, with ReQuest taking a lesser role of Associate Producers.

Brownrigg knew he needed help with fulfilling his vision of a storyline. He brought on his wife Maegan Allen Brownrigg, a novelist in her own right. She was working as head writer on another project in development; a science fiction television series entitled “Digital Burn”. Maegan, a long-time werewolf fan herself, set aside the time to work on the concept. He also brought on Ed Landers, a gamer, a writer, and also an avid werewolf fan. The three began to work on a background story.

Maegan researched the message board, coming up with a list of what the fans wanted and didn’t want. The three of them studied the list, then set it aside and began to work on their story. Although they did not share the actual plotline or script, they did keep the Pack updated on the development. When it was finished, they were surprised to find that their concept was in keeping with what the fans had wanted.

Brownrigg began a search for someone that could match his ideas in the ‘look’ of the project. He was impressed with the work of Timothy Albee, who was getting a lot of press for another project. Albee had been working on “Kaze: Ghost Warrior” a fully animated feature. "Kaze" contained mainly anthropomorphic characters. While the style was more attributed to animation, the quality, and detail of his design matched Brownrigg’s need for a combination of beauty and reality.

Brownrigg contacted Albee, sharing the back-story of the Pack, and what he wanted the film to be. Albee, who already had been looking for a werewolf project to filter through his new animation studio, loved the idea. In early 2005, Brownrigg asked Albee to come on as co-producer for the film.

With Albee on board, Brownrigg began work on the script itself. Working in tandem with his wife, they completed the script in April of 2005.