Critics were a bit mixed on the movie, but audiences have, generally speaking, loved what Sparke is selling with “Primitive War.” Its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is higher than every single “Jurassic” movie save for the original “Jurassic Park.” The good news is that Pettus has more novels to adapt, meaning a sequel is a distinct possibility. As always, though, it’s going to come down to the financials. For an independently produced movie, that can be a steep hill.
“To me, it’s going to be how it goes on VOD,” Sparke said of what it will take to make a “Primitive War” sequel happen. “I definitely want to continue.” The team has also been selling shirts, posters, and other merchandise on eBay tied to the movie. For physical media fans out there, the filmmaker also confirmed that a Blu-ray release is being planned.
“There’s going to be a Blu-ray, and if that goes well or if it goes on VOD steelbook as well,” Sparke said. “I’ve done an audio commentary, and there’s behind the scenes and there’s a whole bunch of extra stuff.” Come what may, the movie’s mere existence is something of a victory lap for Sparke. His movie was originally rejected by a number of film festivals, but they did get a big panel at this past summer’s San Diego Comic-Con, which made it all real, both for him and the world at large. As he explained:
“Film festivals, high film festivals, I won’t say which ones, but once they saw us go to Comic-Con and once they saw the crowd and once they saw the trailers and once they saw the release, they reached back out to me going, oh look, we should have taken it. We would’ve loved to take it. If you do anything else, let me know.”
“Even up until the release, there was still this, you can’t do this,” Sparke concluded. “Luckily, the fans and everyone else like yourself have really jumped on board and made a bit of an online noise about it, which, for a filmmaker, is the best thing. I make ’em for the audience. I don’t make ’em for the critics.”
“Primitive War” is out now on VOD and Digital.