“Cloverfield”

[muthagoose]

Mystery “Cloverfield” Trailer Has Internet Abuzz

While unleashing "Transformers" onscreen this week, Paramount also lifted the lid on a top-secret project in the form of a teaser trailer for a new film, "Cloverfield."

The casting process was just as mysterious. No scripts or even scene pages were sent out; agents who were contacted were simply asked if their client wanted to be in the movie or not. Eventually a cast, made up mostly of relative unknowns, was put together; it includes Michael Stahl-David ("The Black Donnellys"), Odet Jasmin, Mike Vogel ("Supercross") and Lizzy Kaplan ("The Class").

The trailer's footage is shot by a hand-held camera, home-movie style, giving it a sort of "Armageddon" meets " The Blair Witch Project" feel, though it is not clear if the entire movie follows that style. While the trailer does not reveal the name of the movie, it does announce a release date of Jan. 18.

The teaser trailer for Cloverfield made its way onto YouTube the other day, but as quickly as the videos went up, Paramount cried copyright infringement and forced the popular video site to take down any and all references to the film. I won’t post it here, because I’d rather avoid a nasty letter from Paramount’s lawyers, but you can still find a bootlegged version of the trailer with a quick Google Video search.

Clearly though, Paramount is trying to maintain a strict level of secrecy regarding the latest project from Lost creator J.J. Abrams. After all, the best way to pique someone’s interest is to tell them they can’t see something. And Abrams is no stranger to using inventive marketing ploys to capture viewer interest, having deployed the tactic more than once with his hit show Lost.

Further fueling the fire that this merely a planned viral media campaign is that the blog world seems to have significantly more information than the trades. According to Hollywood Reporter, even the development of the film was shrouded in secrecy, as no scripts were sent out to agents; their clients were merely asked if they wanted in or not. Very cool stuff.

What we do know is that the mystery film revolves around a monster attack in New York City (the trailer shows an explosion by the Empire State Building, along with the severed head of the Statue of Liberty), as experienced through the eyes of a small group of friends. Matt Reeves (Felicity) will be directing a script penned by Lost’s Drew Goddard.

Whatever it turns out to be, Paramount and J.J. Abrams have piqued my interest, so expect more info on Cloverfield to come your way as we get it. In the meantime, check out SlashFilm.com for an in-depth analysis of the trailer.



Analyzing JJ Abrams’ Cloverfield: Voltron, Godzilla, Lost, Gamera

Now that the movie trailer for the top secret JJ Abrams produced monster movie (tentatively titled Cloverfield) has been unleashed on the world, a big faction of the internet refuses to believe that it’s just another monster movie. Much of the speculation around the fanboy circles points to either another American Godzilla movie or a big screen live action Voltron film. Before we explore those two theories, let’s take a look at what we supposedly know so far.

* JJ Abrams is producing
* Long time Abrams collaborator Drew Godard (Lost, Alias, Angel, Buffy) wrote the script
* Matt Reeves (The Pallbearer) is attached to direct
* The whole film will be shot from the POv of consumer handheld video cameras
* The monster or alien is being referred to as a “parasite”
* The City is New York City
* In the trailer they throw a going away party for a young man going to Japan
* There is a Godzillaish roar in the background which sounds a little robotic
* At the end it says In Theaters 1.18.2008
* The trailer was shot before principal photography
* As far as we know, they have not begun principal photography
* JJ Abrams Bad Robot production company is making the film for Paramount Pictures

Some people are pushing the Voltron theory based on the idea that at around one minute and twenty seconds into the trailer, one of the kids yells “It’s a Lion!” But the truth of the matter is, he says “ahhh! It’s alive, It’s huge.” There is no “lion” spoken in the trailer.



Godzilla
The Godzilla faction has used this misquote to support a theory that the movie features Monster Zero (King Ghidorah), a Godzilla monster that looks like a lion, comes from space and shoots fire balls. One thing is for sure, it’s not Godzilla himself because “It” comes from the sky and can throw/spit/produce fireballs. And we must all remmber that a 3D Gozilla is currently also in production.

Others have speculated that the movie might be a remake of Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe. Gamera uses a fireball weapon which seems to fit the action shown in the trailer. But Gamera is virtually unknown by the American audience, so what is the point of using/buying his name property?

Voltron
The screenwriter for Voltron has said the battle takes place in Manhattan, and that the monsters have parasitic qualities which allow them to regenerate themselves by combining with metal debris. Voltron also fought parasite monsters in the series. However, the Voltron rights still belong to Mark Gordon Productions, and involves a crew of producers that are supposedly not involved in Cloverfield. Mark Gordon Productions is also not a production company under Paramount.

And then there was the emergence of the voltronblog.com website. We have done a whois lookup, and it appears that it is owned/hosted by a different company than the one that is running the official Cloverfield website (1-18-08.com).

I think the biggest fact that many people are overlooking is the release date: January 18th 2008. That’s only six months away and the film has yet to begin principal photography. Sure, that timeline is good enough for a talkie indie film but a big monster movie with lots of special effects? Something seems really off. The timing of the January release also seems off for this type of movie. Some people are speculating that the date is in fact the film’s title. And others are speculating that the date is not the film’s release date, but a release date of a trailer or more viral information.

Lost
Some have even speculated that this might be one giant campaign for the Abrams co-created television series LOST. It could just be a coincidence that LOST returns to network television a few weeks after the 1.18.2008 date and is expected to involve flash forwards to the “real world”. JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot is also the production company behind lost. This whole dissection of the movie trailer and online discussion also seems something much in the vein of the LOST television series.

One thing is for sure, Paramount and JJ Abrams have gotten our attention. We’ll have to wait and see how this pans out.

[muthagoose]

Top Secret JJ Abrams Project in HD!

If you head on over to Apple.com you can check out the trailer for JJ Abra

ms "Cloverfield" project, which is simply going by the name 1-18-08 for now. The film is a giant monster movie (a parasite) shown on cheap cameras from regular people's perspective. JJ Abrams (Lost, Mission Impossible 3) produces the Paramount film.


www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/

[muthagoose]

J.J. Abrams Clarifies "1-18-08" Talk

With the teaser trailer for a top secret monster movie project attached to "Transformers" causing a lot of stir, news has run rampant the past couple of days with odd viral sites and blogs popping up all over and various wild rumor flying about the untitled-as-yet film which is being referred to by its release date or as "Cloverfield".

Now, producer J.J. Abrams tells AICN that "We're doing some fun stuff on the web. But, obviously, if the movie doesn't kick some massive ASS, who gives a rat's about what's online? So as you can imagine, we're focusing mostly on THAT."

More importantly he shot down the biggest source for speculation - "For what it's worth, the only site of ours that people have even FOUND is the 1-18-08.com site. The others (like the Ethan Haas sites) have nothing to do with us."

Those sites are EthanHaaswasright.com and EthanHaaswaswrong.blogspot.com which were thought to be a big part of the project.

[muthagoose]

Probably the best thing happening movie-wise or advertising-wise this year:


Who Was Responsible For The Cloverfield Movie Trailer?

JJ AbramsWhen the Cloverfield trailer hit one of my colleagues commented on Paramount’s genius marketing plan. I told him it’s not Paramount, JJ Abrams and his production company Bad Robot deserve the credit. I knew this because I’ve followed the viral marketing of Lost. The whole idea sounds less like an old school Hollywood idea and more like new school Hollywood using the internet the way it should be. Advertising Age has posted a new article summing up the whole Cloverfield phenomenon. The only interesting new tidbit follows:

Who cut the “Cloverfield” trailer? Paramount isn’t saying. Execs at and spokesmen for the studio did not return calls seeking comment. But a person at a postproduction house that works closely with Paramount on all its trailers told Ad Age that the trailer “came out of left field for all of us” and that the consensus was Mr. Abrams had cut the trailer himself.

If this is true (which I believe to be the case) it makes me wonder how hands on Abrams is on this project. The more involvement, the more faith I have in the project. No offense to screenwriter Drew Goddard or director Matt Reeves, but people rushed to the internet based on JJ Abrams name.



Here’s what has come to light in the past week:

The movie will start post-incident. Whatever attack the movie is about has already happened and the movie opens with crews cleaning up after the disaster. One of them will find a camera, rewind the tape inside, and that’s the movie. That’s why the trailer has a home video feel to it, because the entire movie will feel that way. That’s awesome, although I expect we’ll hear complaints of motion sickness like Blair Witch caused. That news comes from AICN, who has had a lot of the inside scoop on the movie so far.

In fact, AICN’s Moriarty has an interesting theory about J.J. Abrams and all the viral marketing that’s going on right now. He posits that Abrams is a fan of the Disney parks. If you know the rides there, you know that the queue lines and the building exteriors are just as much a part of the ride as the physical ride itself. He thinks that’s what Abrams is doing with these websites: building up part of the movie before we get into the theater.

On that side, we know now that the Ethan Haas websites are definitely not part of Abrams project, so stop looking there for answers. Clearly, www.1-18-08.com is definitely a part of the promotion, although the picture count there stays at three. Advertising Age has also added slusho.jp/ as a potential element of the mythos. Slusho was a popular drink in Abrams’ “Alias” and appears on a shirt in the mysterous “Cloverfield” trailer.

Advertising Age also has another interesting tidbit on that trailer. Apparently the studio wasn’t behind the editing for it, which is very uncommon. Typically the studio takes care of who handles the trailer, while the production team stays focused on the movie itself. This time, however, it appears Abrams was behind the trailer, literally. The consensus seems to be that he cut the trailer himself, which explains the lack of a title in the trailer. A studio would almost never let that happen.

Meanwhile even The New York Post has gotten into the guessing game, with an article that analyzes the trailer with a fanatical level of detail. They also mention a small crew shooting footage in Coney Island a few weeks ago, including scenes at a Ferris Wheel, bumper cars, skee ball games, and more. One of the owners of the Wonder Park told the press the movie is about an alien invasion and confirmed AICN’s “replay of a videotape” news.

I’m still astonished with how blindsided this movie caught most of us. It’s so rare for anything to get filmed without some website somewhere knowing about it and blabbing all of the news. As much as I’d love to have an inside scoop for our readers, there’s a part of me that would kind of like to go into the final movie as blind as I was for the trailer. That gives more of a chance for an absolutely astounding movie-going experience, with less expectation for disappointment.



Just because.

[muthagoose]

Possible Teaser Poster Leaked?

CloverfieldNews has a possible teaser poster image for Cloverfield/1-18-08 with "MONSTROUS" written across the top and what they say is "1-18-08" in the bottom corner, but looking at the image I don't see it.

However, I can't imagine this unamed project is going to end up being named Monstrous as that sounds far too corny for a movie that is generating so much attention. Why not just call it Oh No, A Monster? Just as dumb in my opinion.

In other Cloverfield/1-18-08 news there is online proof here that Paramount Pictures has registered the domain name themonstrousmovie.com as of June 7.

What's it all mean? Who knows, maybe we will find out at Comic Con in the coming days.

[muthagoose]

J.J. Abrams Cloverfield Mystery Solved?

Ever since the Transformers movie there has been buzz about J.J. Abrams mystery project codenamed "Cloverfield". This was first presented as a trailer that ended with no title. I am very surprised that it didn't take someone about 30 seconds to figure out. Not because

I figured by the time I got home there would be some link to it somewhere online explaining it. Secrets are hard to keep in Hollywood.

I can tell you what colour Britney Spears panties are today (if shes sporting any) but its nearly a month later and we still don't know what this movie will be.

To further add to the mystery, Gorilla Rodeo at RottenTomatoes.com forums posted some blurry pics of a poster in a comic shop window for a movie called "Monstrous" with a headless Statue of Liberty. As we saw in the trailer, the head flies down the street with destructive results.

Stranger still, there is no movie called Monstrous listed on IMDB.

For a theory on who or what is making the messes in the trailer, I tripped over LostBoy92551 at GameTrailers.com forums who says:

In Jewish belief, Behemoth is the primal unconquerable monster of the land, as Leviathan is the primal monster of the waters of the sea and Ziz the primordial monster of the sky.

1) The first monster roar is accompanied by an earthquake (Behemoth)
2) The second monster roar is accompanied by a huge fireball (Leviathan, for it can breathe fire)
3) The third monster roar is accompanied by the flying Statue of Liberty head (Ziz).

Not convinced?

The guy who says "maybe we can get a better view from the roof" has the Slusho logo on his shirt. Slusho is a classic J.J. Abrams icon, and it has appeared in both Alias and Lost, which are his shows.

Slusho.jp has, by now, been confirmed as a part of the viral marketing campaign revolving around 1-18-08. Japan. Strangely enough, the character Rob, who is present in the trailer, was gonna fly to Japan a day after that party and the monster events.

Let's have a look around on that site. Not all pages are accessible. But there is an odd feature about the pages that are available. The main page background is on land, the Downloads page background is on air, and the History page background is on sea.

Furthermore, the six buttons on the main page cause popups of various animals, namely a Horse, a Whale and a Bird. Behemoth, Leviathan, Ziz.

Now I know NOTHING about the Jewish belief (John is better at these things) but a quick look over at wikipedia says that these creatures are all mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible. I recall the bit about Behemoth, but I must have missed his brothers.

Speaking of our favourite city scape crushing giant reptile, a lot of speculation online was that this was going to be a Godzilla movie. If this forum poster is right, this will definitely appeal to that crowd.

Could we finally have our answer? Will this J.J. Abrams project be called Monstrous and feature 3 mythological creatures of the apocalypse? Who will be our heroes? Or will this just be 90 minutes of hopeless chaos as three giant creatures tear NY a new one?

[muthagoose]

Today the official website for Cloverfield - the still untitled JJ Abrams film - has been updated with a new image and some clues.

If you head to the site you'll see an image of a Japanese chef, just take your mouse and move it really quickly left and right and the image will flip over revealing some writing in Japanese.

The film is a giant monster movie (a parasite) shown on cheap cameras from regular people's perspective. A few weeks ago we were informed that the film might be titled "WRECK" and are still awaiting confirmation.

[MASON]

This movie has generated a lot of buzz, but the real question is if it will hold at the Box Office. It might be horrible, and all of this is publicity to go see it. For me personally, it worked. I'll see it this weekend...probably.

[muthagoose]

I am looking forward to this but I think it may end up being just hype. They did great with that hype last summer but it kinda died off in the past few months. People have already leaked that it is a monster and if you look around you can easily stumble upon a rendering of it. Way to spoil the fun people!

I would like to check it out though... definitely something to see in the theater.

[Üncle Snake]

I saw it last night. The kind of hype that has been around this movie annoys me, so I wasn't too excited about it. BUT I thought it was great. It's unlike anything I have seen before. I highly recommend it. I've written my review, which should be in the paper Friday.

[muthagoose]

Well I will definitely have to check it out then.

The hype didn't annoy me it just seemed they kinda only went halfway with it. It was huge at first then it just ended. I realize keeping it all a secret is impossible but more secrecy on the project would have made me more excited.

I will keep an eye out for you article.

[MASON]

I don't get the paper! Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Makes it nice to know that it might not be all hype.

[Üncle Snake]

Here's the link to my review: www.stardem.com/article.asp?section=142&article=34997

[muthagoose]

Good review Snake. If you liked "Cloverfield" you will most likely shit pants when you see "Bride of The Werewolf".

[Stomper]

I really like this movie and am considering going to see it again. You have to go check this one out guys.

[muthagoose]

"Cloverfield" Lands Cash, Talks Sequel

Monster movie "Cloverfield" has shattered the studio's box-office estimates by raking in $18.25 million for its opening day on Friday.

The number puts it on course to earn just over $50 million for the long weekend, easily shattering the best January opening record held by "Star Wars: Special Edition" with $35.9 million, and the Martin Luther King holiday weekend record which "Black Hawk Down" had with $33.6 million.

Another wide release this week was rom-com "27 Dresses" which also landed a much higher than expected $8.7 million on Friday and looks set to bank $30 million by the holiday weekend's end. Not faring as well was Diane Keaton/Queen Latifah caper comedy "Mad Money" with $2.3 million on Friday, whilst the limited release of Woody Allen's new thriller "Cassandra's Dream" with Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor looks set to bomb with a sub-$4,000 per screen average expected by holiday weekend's end.

Meanwhile at the premiere of "Cloverfield" earlier in the week, director Matt Reeves was asked by Bloody Disgusting about the rumors that a sequel is already being planned. Reeves responded "Only time will tell. While we were on set making the film we talked about the possibilities and directions of how a sequel can go. The fun of this movie was that it might not have been the only movie being made that night, there might be another movie! In today's day and age of people filming their lives on their iphones and handy cams, uploading it to youtube...That was kind of exciting thinking about that."

[muthagoose]

I went to see the movie today. While I thought it was very good, I wouldn't say that I was blown away, but I did like it. It will probably be one that grows on me.

I hope they don't make a sequel though, it would cheapen the whole thing... a la Blair Witch 2.

[muthagoose]

History of A Monster?

Bad Robot producer JJ Abrams tells EW that he's in no rush to get a sequel rolling because he wants to make sure it keeps the integrity of the original. "I wouldn't want to rush into it because of the heat on the movie - Id want to do something that is true to the spirit of what we made."

Producer Bryan Burk adds that the creative team "has fleshed out an entire backstory which, if we're lucky, we might get to explore in future films."

EW writes that possible plots include an attack on another city or telling the same New York event from another perspective.

In CLOVERFIELD, five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

[muthagoose]

Matt Reeves Doing "Cloverfield" Sequel

Matt Reeves is in early talks with Paramount to direct a "Cloverfield" sequel and has also made a deal with GreeneStreet Films to direct "The Invisible Woman" reports Variety.

Timing of the projects will depend on how quickly Paramount can complete discussions with Reeves, producer J.J. Abrams and scribe Drew Goddard to scare up another monster tale for the "Cloverfield" sequel.

There's a good chance the sequel will be Reeves' next film, in which case he will direct "The Invisible Woman" afterward.

"Woman" is a Hitchcock-style thriller that probes the mind of a former beauty queen who turns to a life of crime to protect her family.

Reeves wrote the script and will produce with Abrams. GreeneStreet will finance "The Invisible Woman" and will sell overseas territories.