- 3 months ago
Primitive War director Luke Sparke joins Matthew Pejkovic on the Matt's Movie Reviews Saturday Conversation show.
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00:00hello and welcome to the mats movie reviews saturday conversation show an interview series
00:11where i talk to entertainment personalities content creators and filmmakers about their
00:15work and love of film today's guest is luke spark the prolific filmmaker from queensland australia
00:22who since his 2016 feature film directorial debut red billabong has delivered several locally made
00:29productions of indie spirit and blockbuster aesthetic luke's latest film primitive war just
00:35might be his biggest yet an action war sci-fi set during a vietnam war in pits in elite team of
00:41soldiers against savage dinosaurs primitive war is currently still available in cinemas in australia
00:48and playing in theaters in u.s as well make sure you go to all your different websites to check out
00:52where you can find a session watch it in cinemas people uh do so make sure we stand behind our
00:58indie filmmakers and make sure we get indie films uh represented in cinemas and joining me now to
01:03talk about primitive war and just his career as a whole mr luke spark luke how are you i'm good how
01:09are you matt it's been it's been a while since we talked thank you for having me on well thank you so
01:14much for coming back on it has been a little while but you know during that time you've been incredibly
01:19busy i think the last movie we talked about was um uh bring him to me i think was the last one we
01:25talked about ever since then you've had scurry um now primitive wars there's another one in between
01:31there as well i'm just trying to catch my bearings here your filmography um i think i think that's
01:36been it i went from i went back to back from bring him to me the scurry to primitive and scurry hasn't
01:42come out yet so um you know just one screening uh and it's coming out soon but yeah sort of went
01:48the other way shot at first but being released after primitive is like we're just talking off air just
01:55now i think it's like the ultimate kind of luke spark movie and we'll get into more later as to
02:00why that is but let's just talk about the last several months really um first that trailer hits
02:07and it's really interesting the timing of the trailer i think the the jurassic uh world um what's
02:13whatever it was called rebirth or whatever it was came out maybe a couple weeks before that people
02:17like ho hum about that then primitive war trailer comes out and people like this is a dinosaur movie
02:22we're looking for goes viral last time i saw had over two million uh hits on the on the official
02:28channel um and so many others uh places have posted it since then then you have that and then you have
02:34order or the fanfare from that which leads to comic-con san diego comic-con first australian movie
02:40to ever headline one of those panels that they have there in ballroom 20 you've done that and now the
02:46movie comes out still playing in cinemas in australia it's get expanded release because word of mouth is so
02:52good cinemas and theaters want to show it and all that i've got to say is like mate how are you
02:57feeling now i mean the movie's out you've got all this build up towards it and then now it's out and
03:03people are loving it and i want to see more of it more theaters are showing that this has to be kind
03:07of like where all the other films is kind of like kind of built up i think to like this moment now where
03:12i think like the luke spa kind of like the as a filmmaker um has really kind of like just hit that
03:18kind of groove in right now people just really riding that wave with you yeah i mean you said
03:24it in a nutshell everything there that's um that's an amazing piece to look back on uh but yeah i mean
03:30i guess two two things that come to mind one is relief um it's relief that at least it it um
03:38the it was worth the hype at least it delivered on the hype um i feel uh and from the feedback and
03:44from what i've been told um it has which was great so that's that's obviously a big relief and
03:49second for me it's always let's get on to the next one yeah i like to sit still very long um
03:55and uh you know use this as a calling card launch pad whatever you want um you know i've been in la
04:02i just got back on the weekend uh while we were launching the film there and i took a lot of meetings
04:07around town and uh you know the word is yeah like this is now my calling card
04:12and it shows what we can do and even though i've been building to this for 10 years it's kind of
04:17like that last 10 years is just the build-up and now comes the real the real work even though you
04:25have always had that kind of philosophy let's like move on to the next one you've got to be able to be
04:29able to sit back a little bit though and kind of just just enjoy this moment right now about what
04:34this film and especially kind of brings that brings to you both as a career and just in a personal
04:38kind of like way as well yeah no totally like and i spent time in la just even though i was busy
04:44i did spend time just sitting back and and you know it's a good it's a great if you know la is
04:51ho-hum either way but um it's great if you have released a film because it's kind of like the dream
04:56right you go to la you release a movie it lands there's billboards on sunset boulevard there's
05:01billboards in new york um so yeah i i got to experience that firsthand um and sit back and sort of
05:07take take it in and enjoy and and hear the feedback and talk to people and um yeah it was
05:13it was really good it's been a great experience especially after comic-con and comic-con itself
05:17um for me being a huge fanboy uh of many different fandoms around around the around the genres to go
05:26there and to have a film at san diego which i live stream every year from australia i have ever since
05:30you know i was a i was a kid um was just an awesome experience especially to walk in
05:35like you said we had the teaser that went viral uh and that's all we had at that time because we
05:41launched the second trailer at comic-con but all we had was one teaser it wasn't a reboot it wasn't
05:45a sequel it was like an original sort of piece of a book um and we're out in the holding rooms
05:50beforehand and they were like oh attendance is down um the the the one before you only has like 200
05:56people so don't it's not you it's it's just it's just the market and we walked out there and it was
06:02like you know it was packed and then people kept coming in and by the end it was standing room
06:06only you know 4 000 seat theater uh with a great reception to us and the cast and the trailer it
06:12was just a awesome experience so san diego comic-con definitely um was one of the best experiences i've
06:19had as a as a filmmaker um and i want to remind everyone again first australian film like proper
06:26australian movie to headline a san diego comic-con panel as well which is just a remarkable
06:31achievement on its own um i want to i want to go back i want to get in that delorean go that time
06:37machine go back a little bit here and because i always like with these conversations just to talk
06:41about kind of like the infancy of where they come like those film seed kind of kind of happened with
06:45with um i guess um and sometimes it starts with that first cinema experience do you remember the
06:51first movie you watched at the flicks uh luke i do i do actually remember it and it's funny for this
06:57movie because it was the land before time the first one if i remember it might not be the first one i
07:02i saw as a as a kid or a baby but it's the first one i remember in the milton theater in the south
07:08coast of uh new south wales down near ala dalapar sydney um yeah i saw it was a amazing heritage
07:15theater with double stories and uh yeah we saw land before time and potentially that got me into
07:20the love of dinosaurs um but yeah it's funny enough that that's the first one i remember
07:24i read that um you were making kind of like um stop motion movies when you were 12 with your gi joes
07:31and such is that correct that is correct yeah uh with uh again south coast new south wales so it was
07:37we were kind of like the the 1990s didn't hit until you know the 1980s didn't hit till 1990 so we were
07:43like really sort of um you know way down in the sticks uh so i didn't really have much in the way of
07:48the film industry apart from you know vhs shops or beta back then i remember hiring beta beta movies
07:53um but yeah i used to get stop motion with my gi joes and then eventually when jurassic park came
08:00out i switched up to having some dinosaurs come into their stop motion uh soldier type things which
08:05is again hilarious for this movie but yeah um yeah gi joes and stop motion animation was uh my thing for
08:11it for a while my um oldest son michael he's 12 turning 13 he's into stop motion now he absolutely
08:18loves it he watches the old godzilla movies like the toho ones and anything ray harry house and all
08:24that stuff so he makes his own stop motions but he has a computer uh he has programs all that stuff
08:30cameras what were you using back in that time in the 90s to make your your stuff with what type of
08:35equipment did you have as a 12 year old uh luke spark making his own movies uh yeah i had a really
08:41basic uh camera that was like the one of the first digital ones that we could get down there and my
08:46parents could get in the in the sort of late 80s um i can't remember the actual brand but it was like
08:51a really early digital one um and it was just literally just you could only edit it on the camera
08:56itself with little buttons at the back um but it was more just for me like just to do it wasn't like
09:01a screen to anyone else i would you know or i'd make a little or i'd get a whole bunch of photos
09:06and literally just make a flip book um and literally just do it like old school flip book photos and that
09:11so it was more for me the the fun of making them was more finding camera angles and and um and and
09:18going low to the ground on the on the little action figures and having all different setups and
09:23storylines um for them but yeah that's just kind of what i would do with my spare time
09:28what was your introduction actually to the film industry in regards to the business side because
09:33from what i've read it was kind of like more for what i remember in the previous discussion discussions
09:38it was more kind of like in the caution design side more production side um and is it true that
09:43on the great raid which was this movie that came out in 2005 you were turning 18 on a set so you
09:48couldn't do any work then until you turned 18 and then you could do work on that movie yeah yeah that
09:53is all true i've said all in the past um yeah so my my introduction to the film industry
09:57so while we're at the south coast in that particular time period my father was really
10:03heavily into collecting military costumes and props he has been since uh he was a he was a kid
10:09um and around that time really started getting big with uh anzac days and uh historical
10:15commemorations and the war memorial reached out because canberra was quite you know sort of a jump
10:21over to uh the war more reached out for the uh unknown soldier returning in 1991 um and the
10:29business got sort of like that was like the first of big uh job that we landed as a as a company so i
10:35was always around um military you know historical equipment that which then morphed throughout the
10:40years we moved up the coast and eventually ended up in the gold coast near warner brothers and we
10:45brought out the um we purchased the warner brothers costume department they want to sell it off all the
10:50old costumes right back from the um uh what's this show mission impossible tv series and everything
10:57like skippy and all this kind of stuff you walk down rows and rows of costumes and be labels of
11:02just these amazing old australian tv shows right up until you know the late 90s um and they want to
11:08sell it all off and we ended up buying the majority of it um which then sort of landed us as like a go-to
11:14point from warner brothers to say hey we don't have it anymore but go check out the sparks they have
11:18all the costumes which then led to a wider conversation in the film industry about who who
11:22has it um but yeah the eventually led to the great raid which is 2002 coming over here uh the war films
11:29were kind of big after saving private ryan a lot of the same team from private ryan were hired onto this
11:34film and came out to the set here so i got to meet and have lasting relationships even to now with people
11:40on that on that show um but yeah they wouldn't let me on until i turned 18 which was really annoying
11:45because at that point i probably knew a lot more than uh people working on that show um when it
11:50comes to the military so i had to wait till i turned 18 i was working in the peripherals on the outside
11:54and doing costume stuff for our business passing it over and all that kind of stuff and then eventually
11:58when i turned 18 i could go on set and actually be on the set and work with the team so yes
12:03hi guys matt here from matt's movie reviews letting you know that the matt's movie reviews youtube channel
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13:05like myself who is trying to make it through their content creator space matt's movie reviews youtube
13:11channel memberships please join and get some great exclusive content i'm just going to uh shift gears
13:18here a little bit there's a game i like to play with my guests it's called choose between two
13:22essentially luke going to give you your option between between two things and um and you're going
13:27to choose one and you're going to elaborate on it are you ready to play sure okay let's go to first
13:32one here steven spielberg or james cameron that is so tough i'm gonna have to go spielberg uh because
13:42i just love the sensibilities um and childlike almost childlike motion of him of him and also just the
13:50way he plays with the camera um yeah can't go past it i asked this of another person as well
13:58another filmmaker and they also said spielberg and one reason they said as well is because
14:03they felt that cameron has kind of i don't know locked himself in a certain situation with his
14:09avatar films where he's taking like five to six years between films where and in that time spielberg
14:14has maybe released two or three films in that time and they're still high quality still really well
14:18do you think someone as yourself who's like always looking for the next thing very prolific you think
14:23cameron's kind of like just kind of handcuffed himself in a certain situation or is this what
14:28we kind of have to expect from james cameron considering he's always been very meticulous
14:32with the work that he's done yeah i mean i've got huge respect for both of them um and if he really
14:39is passionate it's all about passion you know i mean if he's that passionate about avatar i get it
14:44would i like to see more james cameron films outside avatar of course um but if he's you know i and and for
14:51me as well like if i could just if someone came to me and said you would just keep making a certain
14:54film forever as long as i had the passion and the ideas for it then i can see why you'd be um you know
15:00so chained to it next one this is the battle of the action sequels mad max 2 road warrior or
15:08terminator 2 judgment day these are hard questions come on i know i've done my research i know these are
15:15hard questions look they're both really good they're both amazing films they're both probably
15:23one of the best action sequels ever made so there's i don't think there's any wrong answer
15:28i'm gonna say mad max 2 just because i love the gumption of the the aussie filmmaking i i love that
15:38that film stands up to something like terminator 2 and and terminator 2 is a great film and it
15:42probably is maybe the greatest action film ever made um but the gumption and everything else that
15:48that miller brought to to to the sequels of mad max and just the fact that i can still you can still
15:53watch it today and just be like what a great film so i'm gonna go with the road warrior next one might
15:58be this might be a little easier for you um you're watching a movie what effects do you like to see
16:03more cgi or practical it's probably not as easy as you think um well when i'm watching a movie my
16:11first thought is i love to just get i'd love to just be just not to worry about it you know the
16:16things are just presented to you and and you don't even thinking about what's that it's the worst thing
16:21when you're watching a movie especially filmmakers like myself and you once if you don't really get
16:25into it your mind starts wandering that's when you start watching the edit and you start watching
16:29the acting you start watching the effects and then you start just doing a breakdown um i do that
16:33more often than probably i should uh but look i practical effects is tough like i would like obviously
16:40like the answer is going to be practical effects um because it's a it's a it's an art format where
16:47we're kind of losing and i know why because of money and time and everything else and trust me i
16:51would know more of that than anyone um and practical effects are hard because if you don't do it right
16:56it's great to say and i've done practically you know we've talked about this in the past red billabond
17:00and occupation one and occupation one look i i can say i tried to go practical and some of the aliens
17:06don't look very good the practical stuff um and it's tough because if you don't have all that
17:11behind you if you don't have a stan winston or don't have like the people that actually know the
17:14stuff then that's why i'm primitive war i kind of lean more into the other way because i'm like if
17:19you can't do it right let's find a way we can make it look okay and then look right and i could do it
17:24that better with the digital guys who were much more on my level much more on our ideas and everything
17:29else and work doing together rather than going we're going to do practical dinosaurs then you have
17:33some janky head going and and and then people go that's just terrible you know i mean you go you
17:38kind of a little you can't put a little caption on the screen being like but we did practical
17:42it's okay because it's all about the immersion it's all about how to make it real so i'm gonna say
17:48practical with the caveat um what do you like watching movies on physical media or streaming
17:55physical physical yeah like streaming is here to stay until it's not but um physical is never
18:04going to go away and i always tell people just like chris nolan make sure you grab it on physical
18:08and i actually work into my contracts these days and the distribution is you must release it on
18:13physical uh i had a few films including like bring him to me where it didn't get a blu-ray release it
18:18didn't some of some countries didn't even get a physical release and i didn't like that so now i'm
18:23actually working into contracts uh and it's a pretty sticking point my lawyers are like can we
18:27just let that one go i'm like no no it has to be physical release that's really cool good on you
18:32for that one last one you're at the cinema what's your go-to snack popcorn or candy maltesers oh yes
18:41that's a that's that's a really yep i know you know the only problem with maltesers there's never
18:46enough in the bag no matter if you even get the biggest bag i can smash a bag of maltesers
18:50in record time never enough yeah i used to i used to like like jaffers the orange little orange balls
18:56i remember those yeah yeah yeah yeah last time i had them i think it was in like 1990 whatever the
19:02time the last the indiana jones last crusade came out and we're down the south coast new south wales and
19:08it was a place called brew brew lake down the isle of dala and it had an open air theater i don't think
19:13i've ever seen many around if at all anymore there was an open air theater and uh my father was a
19:19projectionist and they played the burbs and indiana jones last crusade back to back um and i had a
19:26massive bag of jaffers and i couldn't open it i got it open but it exploded and the jaffers went
19:31everywhere and because it was a descending open air theater all people could hear was is the jaffers
19:36rolling down the rolling and rolling down the thing that's funny uh yeah i remember jaffers that's
19:43pretty funny um i want to talk about some of the other early stuff you did before you were
19:47like doing filmmaking like as a director um because you did costumes on beneath hills 60
19:52um to pacific you were standby on that as well what were those experiences like for you
19:57as a young bloke in the industry kind of like just making your way through
20:00yeah i mean the pacific is is and still was an amazing experience um and something that i'll never
20:07forget because it was like basically my film school even though i had the lead up of working
20:12on the great raid and a bunch of other shows and working in costume with my family all the years
20:16the pacific was like we walked in day one when they got to port douglas um so we were really early in
20:23the in the process and i got to read all the early scripts and most of them didn't even get
20:26they all got rewritten by the end um and some of the early scripts when you read them
20:31they're actually better than i think in my opinion better than what actually came out on the show
20:35um so it was interesting even to see that point for someone that wanted to be a filmmaker i got to like
20:39talk to the writers and meet them on set and see the whole process as well um so yeah look it's an
20:45experience i'll never forget because we walked in day one and we were also like one of the last to
20:49leave like a year later so i got to spend a whole year working on 10 episodes of hbo's you know highest
20:55it was like the highest budgeted show at that time um and just the amount of crew and cast and extras
21:01and the day-to-day scheduling and talking to the ad's everything on that show i still use to this day
21:07including primitive war um so it was an amazing experience but i don't think i don't know how i
21:12can top that as an experience in life there's a movie that i i came across that you were trying to
21:20make it i know you and your dad were kind of like working hard to get it done the 34th battalion
21:24um and i was reading like articles like kind of like pre-production on the way casting stephen lang
21:31um was it lean hemsworth i think was attached to it as well um and then you know sometimes these
21:36things happen movies just kind of like they fall apart and stuff um do you still view that film as
21:42the movie that got away or do you still view that one as one that could still be resurrected in the
21:47future i'm gonna resurrect it i'll plant my flag in this podcast and say that it's it's i'll do it at
21:53some point it was hugely disappointing um to have that go the way it did um outside sources and
21:59everything else as as you know in stories in hollywood and everything else things come things go
22:03it was it was looking like it was that we're literally you know in pre-production um yeah so
22:08i will get that film done at some point filmmakers do listen to this podcast i get people get in touch
22:16with me and they talk about how they love hearing kind of like advice from people who are in the
22:20business and doing it right now when you have a situation like that with 34th battalion how it's
22:26like kind of ready to go but then slips out your hands what do you learn from experiences like that do
22:31you kind of take from that well that's just the industry or is there a certain a certain sting that
22:36still comes from something an experience like that yeah it's certain things it's having obviously every
22:41time you make a movie um you learn things good things and bad things on that one particular it was
22:47really making sure um the right people were in the place which they weren't you know a lot of people
22:53you know took took us um for one of a better word in my opinion for a ride um and there can be some
22:59pretty sleazy people in the in the film industry especially overseas um and there's obviously
23:03amazing good amount of good people as well but that particular that particular story um so you
23:08know coming off of that taught us a lot about that side of you know financing and producing and then
23:14everything else so yeah yeah but you know the funny thing is like i didn't start off to direct that
23:20movie as if it was our script we had a couple other directors eventually someone was like luke should
23:25just direct it and that's when i sort of started the game sort of like hey maybe i could and i
23:29storyboarded the whole movie um and if someone said and then back then some people in the industry out
23:34here were like well luke spark can't direct the movie his costume and blah blah blah and that was
23:38also another reason why it didn't you know a lot of people thought it was too big um and if someone
23:44asked me today to film it i would just go and pull those same storyboards out and i was filming
23:47exactly the same uh because i knew i i knew i could do it back then and i would just film the exact same
23:53movie now um you were saying before when we talked about mad max 2 that you'd love the gumption the
23:59aussie gumption um that was behind that movie and that's that aussie gumption is definitely something
24:04that lives in you and your filmmaking in your movies and um the one thing one of the main things i really
24:10love about watching your films is that gumption and um you have that as i said in my um in my
24:17introduction it's an indie spirit but you have a blockbuster aesthetic you want to make big movies
24:22um and you're making them but with that indie kind of heart which a lot of times a lot of these kind
24:26of kind of like core films within the genres are really are kind of like almost like indie films
24:33in a certain way like the first movies in a certain franchise they're the smaller films and then
24:36afterwards comes like the big kind of the big money and and what that kind of stuff um with that in
24:42mind when you look back on especially the two occupation films that you made which to me
24:46still to this day i one of my favorite scenes in like an aussie film is that scene in the
24:52first occupation when they're on a footy field and the aliens land and they come out because
24:56to me it's kind of like this meeting of these two kind of things where at one end you're
25:00making kind of like an aussie movie sitting on an afl field and it's like very much like
25:04you know the local environment and everything else and then you've got this galactic kind
25:08of presence that kind of come into it and we don't see that in aussie films like at all
25:11um and then you have it here to me it's still one of my favorite favorite kind of scenes you
25:15know because i remember watching that at a screening and going yes we need more of this you know
25:20i really enjoyed that very much and then the second one especially i was like a big fan
25:23of occupation 2 uh rainfall um when it comes to kind of marrying those two things together
25:29was it ever a thing where people kind of say to you we don't do that here this is australia
25:34we do lantanas we do you know uh you know the the kind of like eccentric maybe uh battle
25:41hardened kind of movies we don't go for these big ideas because a we don't have uh maybe not
25:46the money or maybe not the resources do you kind of get that kind of blowback and when
25:50you do what's your kind of uh reaction to that kind of feedback okay so yes i get that every day
25:57every day in the film industry even to this day even after making all the films no matter where
26:03i go no matter who i pitch to in australia that's what it comes back with it's very disheartening
26:07um and what i say to them is i say i'll just go do it myself then and the proof is the pudding
26:13because i do you know i mean um i don't talk about it i i i i do it and the annoying part is it's you
26:19know i mean maybe they're right i mean you know talking candidly um you know in a way these films
26:26come out in australia but it's very hard to get australians to go see australian movies uh so it's
26:31not just the people that are running the show it's also you know getting out there to the people
26:35because i feel like australia like south korea i was in l.a recently you know everyone's talking about
26:41south korea has their really great vibrant film industry japan france all have those ones where
26:46it's like hey support these films there's a percentage there's actually french films or
26:50films we don't really do it over here it's kind of like we're it's kind of like we're little
26:54we're little america um and if it goes well in america it's going to go well over here if it
26:58doesn't do well in america it doesn't go well over here and anything that tries to break through in
27:01the meantime like straight australia is you go hey we'll make a big alien invasion movie based in
27:06australia that's cool and i think the aussie attitude is i don't know it's a weird it's a
27:13weird aussie attitude um until it's not but while it is it's just this whole like why are you doing
27:19that for what why are you making this film in australia why are you making australians i'm like
27:22don't you want to hear our own voices don't you want to hear your voice in like an independence day
27:25movie but it's australia with sydney harbour opera house and football fields and everything else and
27:30they're like i don't know why is it not america and i'm like all right that's kind of why the last
27:36couple of films i've made are kind of not based in australia you know i mean like it's just like i
27:41was going to national you know like i get i get you know across the middle america i get more response
27:46to my movies you know i had that dude i had you know an actor i won't say which actor but an actor
27:50walk out of the american premiere and it's like bro you made more of an american movie than americans make
27:56these days you've got the american flag in the background you've got guys gung-ho and gis and
28:00and i'm like i'm a patriot either either for australia i'm a patriot for australia i'm also i feel like i'm
28:06like a lost patriot in america as well like i just like those sort of movies that i grew up with
28:11in in in the 80s and 90s and maybe it's a losing art form maybe maybe it is maybe it's not but it's what
28:16i like to make and i wish australians could just see i was an aussie movie and go that's cool
28:21you know i remember going to support um tomorrow in the war began and i thought i thought that was
28:27when i walked out the same as you i walked out being like wow we need to make it helped inspire
28:31me before i became a director to become a director i was like stewart has done a great action film
28:36here in australia that's awesome let's go make more um and again that movie you know i mean there's
28:41no sequels made there was no it's like come on it's very difficult i don't know why i wish i wish i
28:48had an answer i remember um interviewing stewart when that movie came out because but when i watched
28:53it i thought i thought to myself yes this is kind of like what we need right now and not only that
28:58it's like the franchise and around that time the young adult kind of thing games and such
29:02really big you know book series kids have read this book in high school and my wife was telling me oh we
29:08read that through high school and that stuff and like you said like there was no sequels or anything
29:11and i think it comes down to a lot of times like and i'm gonna i'm gonna maybe get a little
29:17controversial here but sometimes i find that um when it comes to the movies or or especially
29:23standing behind the local industry there's a a certain laziness that comes from consumers
29:28you know they only want to put their money towards what they think will be you know uh really good
29:34kind of uh feedback but in the meantime what they're doing is buying mcdonald's and not getting
29:38the good beef you know we make the good beef but no one's eating it um and the second thing is that
29:43i think there's also a thing where where i don't know whether it was the the the 90s or the early
29:502000s i'm not sure but there's a seem like to be a certain um perception made from certain movies
29:58that came out during a certain time the australian films are only one thing and because of that
30:02when someone says australian film they have flashes in their heads like oh it's going to be that it's
30:07going to be that and i don't like that i like watching these things and what really bothers me is that
30:12you know a lot of the movies that they're watching at the cinemas that they think is like american film
30:16has probably been made in the gold coast or in new south wales or something like that we made them
30:20here with our crew and our talent but as soon as you put our accent on it it just something kind of
30:25like just goes haywire in people's brains and i don't want to get it and and that bums me out it
30:29really does because we make great genre movies and we've had great genre filmmakers and i just wish that
30:36more people kind of uh you know just stand behind it and i know myself i really try my best to try
30:41to get people out there to watch in aussie films when they can but um but i understand as well
30:46talking to a lot of aussie filmmakers that it just seems like you can it feels like sometimes screaming
30:52down a well and um all you hear is your voice back um so you go overseas and sometimes when they go to
30:58the states like you said they find marcus there they find people there that are more open and receptive
31:02to it than they do here and it's a bummer but at the same time it's a really good kind of like um
31:07opportunity to still um do your films and have people watch it yeah yeah yeah 100 everything you
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31:35i want to move on to this other game i like to play rapid fire questions i throw those questions at
31:42you answer as quick as you can you can elaborate afterwards if you want and if you thought the
31:46other ones were hard oh mate just wait for these ones thank you all right well maybe maybe this
31:50first one might be easy i don't know because i know my one so all right i know you love star
31:55wars favorite star wars movie empire strikes back oh very good i remember watching that on i think
32:02the first time i watched as vhs did you watch that vhs the first time or did it yeah yeah yeah there's
32:06there's a there's a picture of me on the return of the jedi beanbag in the 80s watching i think beta
32:12version of um maybe vhs of um yeah empire strikes back yeah pretty uh george lucas uh director cut
32:19whatever things he did later um yeah that's a good answer my my favorites are first um
32:25first one i always call it the fourth first even though people call it the fourth i call it the
32:28first i get it i get it yeah um next one um what is your favorite scene in an action movie
32:35too many good action movies look i'll be rapid fire i'm just gonna say
32:42the scene in the rock with um nicholas cage when they all the marines and seals come up into the
32:50shower room ivaca traz and general hummel played by ed harris has a standoff with michael bean and
32:56they end up all shooting them all it's probably my favorite action scene that's a great movie i know
33:01people trash michael bay but that's a freaking awesome movie well that's his that's his best
33:05movie i i think and he's made some good ones and i think that's his best one because it straddles
33:09the line between craziness and also grittiness um and i think sean connery really helps that movie a lot
33:15it does awesome ed harris as well and ed harris oh and um who was the um the bloke from candy man
33:22what's his name again um yeah uh tony todd tony that's right he's in it too next one is there an
33:30actor you would love to cast in your films and you have a vision having a certain actor uh appear in
33:35one of your films one day ed harris we just talked about him there's a whole bunch like my my casting
33:40process when you see my movies it's kind of like why do you cast that person probably because i want to
33:44talk to them um okay i'll say that mark hamill mark hamill awesome that's a good answer i would
33:53love to i'd love to work with mark hamill if you're listening mark hamill please work with me
33:57last one and you never know this answer might spray mark hamill one way or another
34:02this is important as well by the way this question pineapple on pizza yes or no yes i'm getting a lot
34:10of yeses lately i actually had i was talking to a filmmaker last week and he actually he's in la
34:16and he's like i'm trying to sway me on the pineapple train and he says he makes the best pineapple on
34:21pizza like he's got his own little like pizza kind of place he's like next time in la i have to go to
34:25his place because he's pineapple on pizza i get the arguments against i just i don't like it too much
34:33literally just had it for lunch so pineapple and pizza very cool very cool um so i want to talk
34:40about the the future with you i know right now you're still riding high in the primitive war
34:45it's going great out there as we're saying for scurry is something that still needs to come out as
34:49well um occupation rainfall chapter two is that something that's still in the horizon as well because
34:55i was a big fan of um rainfall yeah look it's a it's a tough one that was a that was a sting
35:00right um rainfall is a very uh word we don't really talk about much around here at the moment
35:05in the office um you know we put we put everything behind that movie uh it came out in the wrong time
35:12during covid um the american distributor oh i guess i won't say too much but the american distributor
35:17uh did not do us any favors um that's all i've probably say that one and that really sort of yeah
35:24sort of really hurt any prospects moving forward on that one so uh if you like that movie i do
35:30have a i don't think i've announced it before but i do have a i would say a spiritual successor
35:36to that movie that i'm working on currently oh very cool very cool indeed um and i'm just looking
35:42here uh you're kind of the imdb and i don't know if i can trust imdb or not so i'm just gonna probably
35:47not ask you anyway people keep adding things i do they just like add stuff on there all the time
35:52um fight for your life is that something that's a in the horizon as well fight for your life yeah
35:57again something i took out uh had a place pick it up i'm still working with them how we can get that
36:03and how we can get that done again really close really one of those ones was super close we had
36:06sets built um and then the actor strike hit and at the time i said to the actors involved i'm like
36:12will you still do it if the strike happens they're like yeah yeah totally i'm like great and then it
36:16happened and then people get coffee um and then it was one of those ones where scurry was a derivative
36:21because of that so scurry wasn't even on the cards um and then we quickly shifted it where we did
36:27scurry while the strike was on oh so that's like a double whammy covet one thing then strike the
36:34other yeah it was it was a rough few years there wasn't it because they hit the covet and then the
36:39strike and then there was a writer's strike too after that so yeah and the covet thing sucked because
36:43of you know the different states and different territories doing different things um you know
36:47queensland was quite contained and laying people in and we were like all right we're going to shoot
36:52something um while the thing's on and then again just as we got all the green cards for the actors
36:57the premier of our state decided to close everything including the airports and everything else and all
37:02the actors had to stop and go away and the whole thing got put on ice so it was definitely a hard
37:07couple of years when you're trying to make films out here when um nowadays you have um primitive war
37:14behind you and you have all these other films behind you now and you're kind of looking forward
37:18um is your philosophy in regards to filmmaking in regards to the business side of that changed a lot
37:25over the years now you have more experience under your bill of course i mean if it doesn't change
37:30be kind of insane right insane is doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different
37:34result so you have to change up the uh ideas every time so yeah i mean like i'm trying to get to a place
37:39where we can continually make films without too much of a hassle because the hardest part of making
37:44a film is getting it together and financing it and the whole that whole aspect and then it's on set
37:50and everything else so it's always it's always a struggle but yeah i mean my philosophy has changed a lot
37:54and i'd love to get to a point where you know i'm getting hired by studios potentially um but in saying
38:01that though i still want to keep a real indie filmmaker spirit so uh and and funnily enough i went
38:06around la and a lot of the meetings i had with some very high high high up there people that were
38:11like i'm so jealous of you you're just out there making films we have to do the slog of doing the
38:15hollywood grind every day my advice to you is don't do that just keep making indie films in australia like
38:21george lucas and i'm like making indie films is hard like it's like it's hard like no backing it's just
38:27just us and they're like they're like dude hollywood is falling apart just just keep doing you and i was
38:32like it's something i've been thinking about ever since hearing it so i don't know we'll see what
38:36happens i'm kind of okay i like as much as doing a million jobs is really difficult um i do actually
38:42enjoy it so otherwise why would i do it for because it's insane um so yeah we'll see what happens
38:48do you ever foresee future luke's uh spark or spark films i should say productions where you're not the
38:56director maybe just taking more of a producer kind of standpoint and having someone else direct the film
39:00like taking people under your wing having a team kind of like a i don't know like a roger
39:04corman because i'm a style situation yeah potentially potentially if i can get to a place
39:09where things are moving forward where you know i know i'm directing a film that year but we want to
39:14have two others under our belt and i don't want to direct them then totally but to put that on me
39:19right now like if if primitive war doesn't if primitive war doesn't get me to a place where i'm feeling a
39:25little bit happier i don't know what i can do because like i threw everything in the kitchen sink at that
39:28movie um and you know last two years of my life that that's that's the hardest part is the years
39:34of your life you know and you've got kids and you've got this and you got that so you know it's
39:38just that time even a few people in america pitched me some ideas themselves and i'm like look it's cool
39:43and you get to that point and now i'm 40 now and it's like do i want to spend two years of my life
39:48doing this job you know i mean like and if the answer is no then i'm probably not going to do it
39:52because it's just it's a lot it's a lot of hard work i mean um i think though just at the end of
39:58the day that you really should just really applaud yourself and give yourself a pat in the back for
40:02the stuff you've done because we've talked now i think this is our fifth time we've talked now so
40:07we talked about uh red billabong the two um occupation films and then bring them to me and now
40:15we're talking uh your career in primitive war and and for me i know that um whenever i talk to
40:21yourself and aussie filmmakers as well who i've talked to you know several different occasions
40:25over the years is it always brings me a certain sense of um you know um pride towards seeing how
40:33well you're doing not that i had anything to do at all just to see the development and evolution
40:38and i think it's really cool what you're doing now man and i mean if if premier war does do what
40:44what we all hope it does do and it takes you next to the next kind of plateau and such um it'll be
40:50well well deserved and so far i mean extended uh screenings across the u.s extended screenings in
40:57australia viral stuff behind it a whole comic cons thing as well i think it's fair to say right now
41:03uh you know those two years have been pretty well spent here uh and i think uh good on you man for
41:10that yeah yeah thank you i appreciate that and it's it's you know i think hollywood is kind of in a
41:16sense of they don't know what to do anymore because i you know i had for example just one
41:21example i had a company i took primitive war two before i made a primitive war not two primitive war
41:26to it um before i made it and they passed fair enough and then i was on set and i'm like look
41:32we're doing it ourselves here's some dailies they passed okay and then i sent them like six months
41:37ago or maybe a bit over that now i sent them a sequence with the dinosaurs all finished and i'm like
41:42look look now now it's now it's proofs in the pudding and then they're like well you know for
41:46all we know this could be the best bit of the movie and you could have terrible ending the
41:50terrible beginning so how would we come on board and it's like all right i think this film just they
41:54just no one knew what to do with it but luckily my team and myself had this like we just knew it
41:58would work with the audience and it's improving but even up until the first weekend even then still
42:03people were like and it wasn't until saturday in america that's the first saturday suddenly like
42:08our sunday was better than our saturday we were beating ron howard's movie eden and then people
42:13then the phone started just ring and then people like we have to have this movie and then i've got
42:16all the different buyers around the world being like we got to buy it um and i'm like well you
42:20could have done this before guys like you know but um you know i hopefully this is the last time
42:26that happens hopefully now with this next whatever film i do next hopefully i can point to this movie
42:31and be like come on they just trust me like i'm not going to make a bad movie for myself like i don't
42:35want to do that that's not the goal of the objective here and i get that there are some
42:39there is a whole string of companies out there that just like making those sort of straight to dvd
42:45movies and i'm not going to say they're bad because every film you know is um you know a work of art
42:50but uh there's definitely companies out there that just love just to churn them out and just be like
42:53we and they've said and literally said to me we don't really care as long as it gets churned out
42:58and that's definitely not what i want to do um i want to keep making films um that are good
43:04and you are and congrats to you to you for that in primitive war for everyone out there hasn't
43:10seen it yet is playing in australian cinema still playing in theaters across the u.s to all my people
43:15out there listening to u.s as well watch it on the big screen this movie was made for the big screen
43:21as you heard then um because it's not only a movie made of a labor of love but you're going to be
43:26watching a film that isn't like a sequel to a remake to uh this to adapt you're watching a real
43:31um artist that work here independent filmmaking um like at its best here um and yeah luke spark
43:38thank you so very much for your time um yeah welcome to the five timers club and matt's movie
43:43reviews and uh yeah man congratulations to you thank you so much appreciate it thank you for
43:49watching the matt's movie reviews channel please subscribe for more reviews podcast interviews
43:54and exclusive content
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