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Open Letter from Ryan Kwanten

Primitive War: Independent Film is a Reminder of How Much We Can Care When We Work Toward a Common Goal

“That’s pride fuckin’ with ya.” – Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), Pulp Fiction

And it most definitely is. I can say from the bottom of my heart (where my love of storytelling resides) that this movie, Primitive War, is exactly the kind of movie that I want to be hit with. One that stays with you long after the credits have rolled, one that exceeds any expectation.

So call me prideful, but this movie has no business being this good. It is cinematic ambition personified. Then executed with a result that truly can only come from obsession. And we were. Obsessed. Possessed.

Let me outline some facts that may enlighten my argument: A Dinosaur movie. And when I say a Dinosaur movie there is absolutely no shortage of dinosaurs both in number and variety. They even get a love story; it’s a period piece set in the Vietnam War. Based off of a discreetly known graphic novel. Shot on location in Australia. Production time of just over 4 weeks. 100% independently financed. 100% Original. Ambitious, right? Add to this list a story filled with heart and heroism, existential dilemmas, and Russians. Bordering impossible, right? Add to this, a Director who was also a Producer, who was also a Production Designer, Editor and about another half dozen other essential roles. Psychotic, right? Yep.

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It was all a lesson in trust. Trust that the right people would be hired on both sides of the fence. Trust that Aussies could make a shit-hot Dinosaur War movie. Don’t give Aussies a challenge or worse don’t give us a chance to pull it off. That was all the ammunition we needed. We’ve already got a chip on our shoulder, now we had a boulder…

In any classic war movie when you watch the behind the scenes footage where the cast and crew recount their experience on set, everyone talks about dropping the ego and rising to the occasion. Becoming a unit. A unit that is willing to go to the ends of the earth for their fellow peers. You tap into parts of yourself you didn’t even know existed. And that can’t help but elicit a feeling that they now understand a part of you that even your loved ones can’t understand. And it stays with you creating life long bonds. That is most definitely not the case in your average production- its love ’em and leave ’em.

As Leader of The Vultures it was imperative for me to forge a history with the Team outside of our story. A banter. A language of sorts. Full of intimacies and idiosyncrasies. We had to care deeply for each other and that could only happen by putting the Team first. And believe me, it was palpable on set when we “lost” one of our brothers. An emptiness in our identity; group dynamic shifts of holes trying to be filled. We had to continually search for paths to redemption. This was bigger than us. It was bigger than them-The good ol’ dino’s. It was legacy.

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Legacy. I knew what it was. I didn’t know what it meant…Until just over a couple of years ago. It was the birth of our son. A living embodiment of our legacy. Sometimes us guys, really need it put in front of our face before we get it. It was an extraordinarily powerful shift in me from that point on. Decisions my parents made years ago began to make sense, And even further back. “I was bringing them all with me” as Maya Angelou once said. It was about having a quiet confidence in her work because she brought with her into the room a crowded army of relatives, friends, luminaries. With my new found quest for legacy now inside me, I was chomping at the bit to see how it changed me as a creative. First out of the gate was Primitive War. I was able to double down on legacy as there was already a built in legacy to the story. However fictional our movie is, it is still very much set in the belly of the very real Vietnam War.

I live four doors down from a retired Full Bird Colonel. When we moved into the neighbourhood he was quick to discover I was Australian and even quicker to add me to his long running Drinking Club filled with an exquisite array of characters. It was at one of these Happy Hour drinks with the Colonel and friends that I told him of this movie I was about to shoot in Australia and how my character, Sargeant Baker, was helming a recon unit who were searching for some missing green berets. The Colonel welled up. With glassy eyes he said to me, “Just remember, you are representing more than a character in a movie. You are representing a place in history. And people in history. Some of whom were my fallen brothers. Do them justice Ryan.” Thank you Colonel. Your words, your wisdom, your loyalty was a lighthouse for The Vultures.

Baker is a lifer. On the surface one could see that he is married to the job. A most dangerous one. Start digging and we begin to reveal an innate sense of Family for his Team. We finished shooting over a year ago and we, to this day, this very hour in fact, we, The Vultures, including Tricia Helfer, have a running WhatsApp group chat. Why? Because it is a reminder of how good we can be and how much we can care when we work toward a common goal. Particularly one that strives to make everything not only possible, but popcorn crunching.

The most common question asked of course: “Yeah but, how are those bloody dinosaurs going to look?” Luke Sparke, fearless and undeterred marched forward. Of course, the mutha fucker knew something we didn’t. Luke marvels at cinema. And he turned that sense of wonderment into a fully fledged production company. And started doing movies. His movies. His way. Outside of the system. A real renegade. A Leo I’m told. Each movie challenging himself in a new way. How far we can push the imagination through movies. Spielberg is very clearly a hero of Luke’s. Knowing what a relatively uncharted territory dinosaurs are outside of the Jurassic franchise, this was a bold one by anyones measure. And clearly, this world was more than tasty enough for another movie on the subject. How do you separate our dinosaur movie from their franchise. Enter Ethan Pettus. Novelist of Primitive War. When Luke saw the graphic novel, and in particular the vision of an American soldier pointing a weapon at a ferocious looking dinosaur… He couldn’t unsee it. From that point on Luke didn’t see anything else. Dude was locked in.

Then cross pollinate it with the aforementioned Family and you have genres bending in a way that can’t help but create mass fandom intrigue. And it did. A smart, subtlety pervasive marketing and PR campaign didn’t hurt. A killer first trailer didn’t hurt. Garnered millions. Surpassing studio movie releases I’ve been told. Trust me, I’m almost an actor. Enter Comic Con. They, in their most infinite wisdom, took a chance on our “little” movie because they felt the temperature of the online audience that was responding to it. This project was clearly what Comic Con was built on. By the fans for the fans. A sold out panel with a couple of thousand people (trust me, I’m almost an actor). We dropped the second trailer there which again caught fire. A Sydney premier that went off like gang busters; a very recent LA Premiere, that blew everyone out of their seats, including myself. Do yourself a favour and see it at the movies. Dinosaurs were put on this Earth to be captured in all their glory on the big screen.

I’m taking The Colonel this weekend.

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