‘Occupation: Rainfall’ DOP Wade Muller and Luke Sparke.
Aiming to cash in on the anticipated global success of Occupation: Rainfall, filmmaker Luke Sparke is developing a raft of features and TV series spanning horror, drama, time-travel and comedy.
The writer-producer-director is assembling a team of writers on these projects, all of which he intends to shoot in Australia.
“On Occupation: Rainfall I had an amazing team working with me and I’m excited to keep moving forward with them,” he tells IF.
The sequel to his 2018 sci-fi thriller Occupation will have its world premiere at Monster Fest in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, followed by a cinema release via Monster Pictures.
The slate includes Blitzkrieg, a World War 2 thriller about a group of bomber pilots who crash land in Germany and must survive the horrors they find, and The 34th Battalion, which will follow four friends from Maitland in rural New South Wales who joined the Australian infantry group formed just after the disastrous Gallipoli campaign and serve on the Western Front.
The latter has been in the pipeline since 2012, when Luke Hemsworth, Charles Mesure, Les Hill, Emilie de Ravin, Clare Van Der Boom, Vince Colosimo, Ashley Zuckerman and Khan Chittenden were attached.
In development for five years, Worlds Collide is a large-scale TV series about a group that travels back in time with far reaching effects.
Bob is a feature comedy about a loser office worker who befriends his wealthy boss. Also in the works is a feel good, globe-trotting drama.
Ken Jeong, Daniel Gillies, Temuera Morrison, Dan Ewing, Trystan Go, Zac Garred, Mark Coles Smith and Dena Kaplan star in Occupation: Rainfall, which picks up two years later as survivors of the intergalactic invasion of Earth fight back in a desperate ground war. Clay Epstein’s Film Mode Entertainment has pre-sold the $20 million film to multiple major markets including the US.
Bullish about its commercial prospects, Sparke says: “I think it’s one of the most ambitious independent Australian films ever attempted. It’s been a long time coming but you will see why.
“Every frame, every sound, every music cue has been meticulously looked over and ensured it’s the best we can give. We’ll be working on it right up until Monster Fest most likely.”