Project Cloverfield
 

I like Lost, I like mystery, I like puzzles, I like the destruction of New York, I like creative gimmicks and I like Monsters, so news of the latest J.J Abrams' (Lost) movie trailer that has been spreading like wildfire got me excited.

What's known so far:

Release Date: 1/18/2008
Producer: J.J. Abrams
Director: Matt Reeves
Writer: Drew Goddard

Premise (so far as known): A small group of people witness a 'monster' attack on New York City.

In February 2007, Paramount Pictures secretly green-lit project Cloverfield to be produced by J. J. Abrams, directed by Matt Reeves, and written by Drew Goddard. The casting process was also carried out in secret, with no script being sent out to candidates. With production estimated to have a budget of $30 million, filming began in mid-June in New York. Due to Transformers showing high tracking numbers before its release, Paramount decided to release a teaser for 'Cloverfield' before the robot film to build hype. The movie is shot with a hand-held camera to emulate a home-movie style. The teaser did not reveal the name of the film, but it showed a release date of January 18, 2008. It appears the creature is referred to as "the Parasite" in-studio.

There exist three viral websites seemingly linked to this project.

Two Photos

Ethan Haas Was Right

Ethan Haas Was Wrong

The first is two photos, from the film/trailer, watermarked with a date and time. The second is a series of flash-based puzzle games that play a video explaining pieces of this alternate reality. A relatively solid explanation of it can be found here. The latter is a self-explanatory blog, which I will let you read for yourself.

So, what do you think? Thoughts, theories etc etc...

Oh, yeah, and the trailer...

I thought it looked pretty dumb when the trailer began, but once the thing attacked New York I was quite intrigued.

Lost spoilers:
I doubt they'll do this, but I think it would be amazing if this movie was a tie-in to the show, and the thing attacking the city was actually the smoke security system from the island. They kind of alluded that the outside world had changed (or something) a couple times in Lost.. it'd be awesome if this is what was going on out there. But again, I don't have any expect anything like this to actually happen.

Yeah, there's been quite a bit of speculation about a Lost tie-in such as Rose recognising the sounds in the first episode, and when asked where she was from replying "The Bronx". Plus the number 108 appearing in the release date. I highly doubt it though.

The trailer also reminded me a bit of the superb Korean movie The Host. I'm a sucker for a decent destruction movie.

Rar! Double post.

Apple have put the trailer up in perfect quality!

I'm half-suspecting that Project Cloverfield will end up like Project Ginger (not the movie - but the early name for the Segway). A lot of pre-release hype and eager speculations when people know little or nothing, and once it finally comes out, most people just shrug their shoulders and move on to something else to talk about.

I think that depends on a number of things. If they keep the identity of the 'monster' a complete secret until the day the movie is released, the mystery and hype will carry the movie easily. Then it's down to whether the film is actually any good. I have faith in the team, and as I said, I'm a sucker for monster and destruction films so as long as it lives up to the hype, and keeps it's air of mystery about it I'll be happy.

The marketing reminds me a lot of The Blair Witch Project, and not just because they're both filmed with hand cams. I think it will, and it seems to so far, share a similar public reception. I liked The Blair Witch Project. In the right conditions, I think it can be scary as hell (Especially to a 14 year old) but it is VERY love it/hate it. Either way... a lot of people went to see it!

So I watched some of the speculation youTube videos. Some people are going too far with the numerology thing... for instance the NY1 shot showed the temp to be 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Some guy was showing a connection to the release date, you know, flip the numbers / divide by x / gives you the square root / etc. I don't know, I never saw an episode of Lost, was there any numerology in it? I think what one should get from 63 degrees thing is that it's really hot for the middle of the night in January in New York. Maybe the hell spawns of satan rising are causing it?

I remember an old bumper sticker I saw in the 92 US presidential election that said "Cthulhu 92- why vote for the lesser evil?"

For the first two seasons at least, the show revolved around a set of 7 numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 and 108). They pop up EVERYWHERE in the show, and are a key part of the shows mythology. I would say any numbers in the trailer, or on the websites shouldn't be taken with a grain of salt. The amount of detail some ARG's go into is insane.

Hi-Res poster. Nice!

Should find out more tomorrow from Comic-Con.

Triple post mayhem!

I expected more from comic-con, but at least we got a digital hi-res poster and not only no announcement of a name, but a denouncement of the name and confirmation that it is a new original franchise:

“I want a monster movie, I've wanted one for so long. I was in Japan with my son and all he wanted to do is go to toy stores. And we saw all these Godzilla toys, and I thought, we need our own monster, and not King Kong, King Kong's adorable. I wanted something that was just insane and intense. It's almost done shooting and I watch dailies and I'm more excited for them than the trailer, which has had an overwhelming response. We have 6 months before this comes out. We're going to have a whole bunch of things, a whole bunch more." He said a full trailer, more clips, full posters, and much more will be coming out over the next 6 monts, including the name, which he will NOT reveal today. You think we'd call it Monstrous? No…"

Poster