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For the creature of the film, see Clover (creature).
Cloverfield
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMatt Reeves
Written byDrew Goddard
Produced byJ.J. Abrams
Bryan Burk
StarringMichael Stahl-David
T. J. Miller
Jessica Lucas
Odette Yustman
Lizzy Caplan
Mike Vogel
CinematographyMichael Bonvillain
Edited byKevin Stitt
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
January 18, 2008[1]
Running time
84 min.[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million[3]
Box officeDomestic
$80,048,433
Foreign
$90,469,519
Worldwide
$170,517,952[4]

Cloverfield is a 2008 monster/horror film directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams and written by Drew Goddard. Before the film's release Paramount Pictures carried out a viral marketing campaign to promote the film. The campaign included viral tie-ins similar to Lost Experience.[5] The film follows five young New Yorkers who throw their friend a going-away party on the same night that a gigantic monster attacks the city. First publicized within a teaser trailer in screenings of Transformers, the film was released on January 17 in New Zealand and Australia, on January 18 in North America, on January 24 in South Korea and on February 1 in Ireland, in the UK and in Italy. In Japan, the film was released on April 5.

VFX and CGI were performed by effects studios Double Negative and Tippett Studio.

Plot summary

The film is presented as a video file recovered from a digital hand-held camera by the United States Department of Defense. At the start of the film, it is stated the camera was "found in US-447, area formerly known as Central Park". The main record of events is interspersed with footage shot on a personal hand-held camera used by various characters prior to the crisis.

On April 27 at 6:42am, Rob Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David) awakens after spending the night with longtime friend Beth (Odette Yustman) in her father's Columbus Circle apartment. They plan to visit Coney Island for the day.

On May 22, Rob's brother Jason (Mike Vogel) and his girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas) prepare a Manhattan apartment for Rob's farewell party, as he has accepted a job as a vice president in his company's office in Japan. Rob's best friend Hudson "Hud" Platt (T. J. Miller) is given a camera by Jason and the responsibility of recording final goodbyes from family and friends at the party, but instead unsuccessfully flirts with his crush, Marlena (Lizzy Caplan). Beth arrives with a date, Travis (Ben Feldman), which upsets Rob. To his dismay, he realizes Hud is taping over footage of him and Beth, including their trip to Coney Island, which shows up intermittently throughout the film. Lily reveals Rob and Beth slept together several weeks previously, which Hud then shares with other people at the party. Rob provokes Beth and her date into leaving the party.

Later on, a brief blackout occurs, and the building shakes. Roars can be heard emanating from outside. When the power returns, everyone turns on the local news, where the anchor explains that there was an earthquake and an oil tanker has capsized in the bay off Lower Manhattan. Curious partygoers go up to the roof to spot the disaster, where they witness an explosion in Lower Manhattan which engulfes the entire Woolworth Building and they flee to the street below. Suddenly, the head of the Statue of Liberty, damaged and charred, crashes down into the street beside them. Hud is able to record a glimpse of what seems to be a giant monster moving into the city. As it approaches their location, a nearby building collapses in its wake, causing Rob, Jason, Hud and Lily to take refuge in a nearby convenience store and sparking various small fires in the streets around the convenience store. After the confusion and panic, the streets fall silent, and the group finds Marlena outside, obviously shaken by the events, who mentions that she saw the monster eating people.

Rob, Jason, Hud, Marlena, and Lily join a crowd leaving the city on foot via the Brooklyn Bridge. While walking across (and after the camera has found the flaming hulk of the oil tanker), Rob gets a call from a distressed Beth, who is stuck in her father's apartment, unable to move. Rob's cell phone battery dies shortly before the bridge is partially destroyed (hit once in the middle of the bridge and possibly again on the Brooklyn-side tower, which collapses) by the monster's tail, killing Jason and countless others. The remaining four retreat to Manhattan while grieving over Jason. Rob enters a nearby electronics store that is being looted and steals a new battery for his cell phone. Hud notices military forces arriving outside the store, sees the back of the monster itself behind a building, and sees a couple of channels reporting on the monster, including a news report of the monster where it is seen apparently in Lower Manhattan, which then switches to a televised battle in which soldiers are being attacked by dog-sized, parasitic arthropods which have fallen off the monster's body. After some argument, the group decides to go with Rob to rescue Beth.

After being caught between the monster and an ineffectual military response, the friends move into the Spring Street subway station. The group decides to go through the subway tunnels to reach Beth's apartment. They are attacked by several parasites in the tunnel. One parasite grabs Hud and drags him, but Marlena hits the parasite away, only to be attacked and bitten by another parasite. The group flees and takes refuge in a Transit Authority office. Marlena and Hud have an intimate conversation when looking at her bites. The group escapes into the abandoned Bloomingdale's via the 59th Street subway station, and are engaged by Sergeant Pryce and a squad of infantry, who had taken cover inside the department store and set up a field hospital and command center to treat the hundreds of wounded people while coordinating the military response. Marlena begins to bleed from bodily orifices. Two men in hazmat suits grab Marlena and take her behind a curtain while Lily, Rob and Hud get grabbed by soldiers and taken away. Hud turns to film at the curtains, just in time to see Marlena's stomach expanding and then exploding. Rob and the others don't have much time to grieve as Sergeant Pryce warns them to report to a military evacuation site before 6:00 a.m., which is when the last helicopter evacuates Manhattan and the military will enact its Hammerdown protocol, which will allow for the sacrifice of Manhattan if necessary to defeat the monster.

The group continues to Beth's apartment at Time Warner Center, finding her tower partially collapsed into the adjacent building. The three climb the standing tower and cross onto the roof of Beth's building and work their way down to her apartment. Beth is found trapped, impaled on a piece of rebar. After the painful rescue, they make their way to an aerial evacuation site near Grand Central Terminal and encounter the monster once more, while the military continues to ineffectively attack it. At the landing zone, Lily is raced into a departing helicopter without her friends. Rob, Beth and Hud are taken in a second helicopter. In the helicopter, they see the monster carpet bombed by a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and it appears to be killed. It then leaps up out of a cloud of smoke and attacks the helicopter. The helicopter crashes into a grassy clearing in Central Park. The three survive the crash and hear a voice on the helicopter's radio warning of the Hammerdown protocol being effected in fifteen minutes. Hud and Beth pull an injured Rob clear of the wreckage, but Hud returns to recover the camera, and as he does so, the monster appears above him. It examines Hud for a few moments and then bites him in half. The monster drops Hud's torso, and Rob retrieves the camera before fleeing with Beth.

The pair take shelter under a bridge in Central Park as air raid sirens begin to blare in the distance, indicating that the Hammerdown protocol is about to be put into effect. Rob and Beth quickly take turns leaving their last testimonies on camera, just as numerous explosions occur outside and the monster can be heard roaring in pain. The bridge collapses and, as debris covers the camera, Rob and Beth can be heard professing their love to one another before another explosion occurs.

The film cuts to Rob and Beth's Coney Island date, during which a satellite can be seen falling from the sky into the ocean accompanied by a faint noise similar to that heard when the monster first arrives.[6] After the credits roll, a garbled radio sound clip can be heard saying "Help us" [7]. When played backwards, the audio says, "It's still alive". [8]

Cast

Further information: List of characters in the Cloverfield universe

Cast notes

To prevent the leaking of plot information, instead of auditioning the actors with scenes from the film, scripts from Abrams' previous productions were used, such as television series Alias and Lost. Some scenes were also written specifically for the audition process, not intended for use in the film. Despite not being told the premise of the film, Lizzy Caplan stated that she accepted a role in Cloverfield solely because she was a fan of the Abrams-produced television series Lost, and her experience of discovering its true nature initially caused her to state that she would not sign on for a film in the future "without knowing full well what it is." She indicated that her character was a sarcastic outsider, and that her role was "physically demanding."[9]

Production

Development

The poster for Escape from New York (1981) inspired the scene of the severed head of the Statue of Liberty in Cloverfield

J.J. Abrams conceived of a new monster after he and his son visited a toy store in Japan while promoting Mission: Impossible III. He explained, "We saw all these Godzilla toys, and I thought, we need our own [American] monster, and not like King Kong. I love King Kong. King Kong is adorable. And Godzilla is a charming monster. We love Godzilla. But I wanted something that was just insane, and intense."[10][11] Abrams pays homage to King Kong approximately 67 minutes into the movie, just after the helicopter crashes. When the video of the camera breaks up, a quick scene from Coney Island is seen. This is followed by several still frames from the original King Kong movie. There are two other still frames in "pre-recorded" sequences, one from the movie Them! and one from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms - these two movies are also cited in the credits. In February 2007, Paramount Pictures secretly greenlit Cloverfield, to be produced by Abrams, directed by Matt Reeves, and written by Drew Goddard. The project was produced by Abrams' company, Bad Robot Productions.[12]

The severed head of the Statue of Liberty was inspired by the poster of the 1981 film Escape from New York, which had shown the head lying in the streets in New York. According to Reeves, "It's an incredibly provocative image. And that was the source that inspired producer J. J. Abrams to say, 'Now this would be an interesting idea for a movie.'"[13]

The film was titled Cloverfield from the beginning, but the title changed throughout production before it was finalized as the original title. Matt Reeves explained that the title was changed frequently due to the hype caused by the teaser trailer, "That excitement spread to such a degree that we suddenly couldn't use the name anymore. So we started using all these names like Slusho and Cheese.[14] And people always found out what we were doing!" The director said that "Cloverfield" was the government's case designate for the monster, comparing the titling to that of the Manhattan Project. "And it's not a project per se. It's the way that this case has been designated. That's why that is on the trailer, and it becomes clearer in the film. It's how they refer to this phenomenon [or] this case," said the director.[15] The film's final title, Cloverfield, is the name of the exit Abrams takes to his Santa Monica office.[16][14]

One final title, Grayshot, was proposed before the movie was officially titled Cloverfield. The name Grayshot is taken from the archway that the two survivors take shelter under at the end of the movie. Director Matt Reeves said that it was decided not to change the title to Grayshot because the film was already so well known as Cloverfield.[17]

Filming

The casting process was 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.[12] One cast member indicated that the film would look like it cost $150 million, despite producers not casting recognizable and expensive actors.[9] Filmmakers used the Sony CineAlta F23 high-definition video camera to film nearly all of the New York exterior scenes.[18] Filming took place on Coney Island, with scenes being shot at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park and the B&B Carousel.[19] Some interior shots were filmed on a soundstage at Downey, California, Bloomingdale's in the movie was actually filmed in an emptied Robinsons-May store in Arcadia, California while the outside scenes of Sephora and the electronics store were filmed in Downtown Los Angeles [20]

The film was shot and edited in a cinéma vérité style,[21] to look like it was filmed with one hand-held camera, including jump cuts similar to ones found in home movies. T. J. Miller who plays Hud, has said in various interviews that he filmed a third of the movie and mostly half of it made it into the movie.[22] Director Matt Reeves described the presentation, "We wanted this to be as if someone found a Handicam, took out the tape and put it in the player to watch it. What you're watching is a home movie that then turns into something else." Reeves explained that the pedestrians documenting the severed head of the Statue of Liberty with the camera phones was reflective of the contemporary period. According to him: "Cloverfield very much speaks to the fear and anxieties of our time, how we live our lives. Constantly documenting things and putting them up on YouTube, sending people videos through e-mail – we felt it was very applicable to the way people feel now."[23]

Several of the filmmakers are heard but not seen in the film. The man yelling "Oh my God!" repeatedly when the head of the Statue of Liberty lands in the street is producer Bryan Burk, and director Matt Reeves voiced the whispered radio broadcast at the end of the credits.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). Because the visual effects were incorporated after filming, cast members had to react to a non-existent creature during scenes, only being familiar with early conceptual renderings of the beast.[24] Artist Neville Page designed the monster, thoroughly creating a biological rationale for the creature, even if many of his ideas like "elongated, and articulated external esophagus" would not show up on screen.[25] The key idea behind the monster was that he was an immature creature suffering from "separation anxiety." This recalls real-life elephants who get frightened and lash out at the circus, because the director felt "there's nothing scarier than something huge that's spooked."[6]

Marketing

Filmmakers decided to create a teaser trailer that would be a surprise in the light of commonplace media saturation, which they put together during the preparation stage of the production process. The teaser was then used as a basis for the film itself. Paramount Pictures encouraged the teaser to be released without a title attached, and the Motion Picture Association of America approved the move.[23] As Transformers showed high tracking numbers before its release in July 2007, the studio attached the teaser trailer for Cloverfield that showed the release date of January 18 2008 but not the title.[12] A second trailer was released on November 16, 2007, which confirmed the title.[26]

The studio had kept knowledge of the project secret from the online community, a cited rarity due to the presence of scoopers that follow upcoming films. The controlled release of information on the film has been observed as a risky strategy, which could succeed like The Blair Witch Project (1999) or disappoint like Snakes on a Plane (2006), the latter of which had generated online hype but failed to attract large audiences. Chad Hartigan of Exhibitor Relations Co. viewed the several issues with the potential of the film, including a lack of major stars, the underwhelming performance of Godzilla-style films in America, and the film's slated release in January, considered a "dumping ground for bad films."[27]

Pre-release plot speculation

The sudden appearance of the untitled trailer for Cloverfield fueled media speculation over the film's plot. USA Today reported the possibilities of the film being based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft, a live-action adaptation of Voltron, a new film about Godzilla, or a spin-off of the TV show Lost.[28] The Star Ledger also reported the possibility of the film being based on Lovecraft lore or Godzilla.[29] The Guardian also reported the possibility of a Lost spin-off,[30] while Time Out reported that the film was about an alien called The Parasite.[31] IGN also backed the possibility of the same premise, with The Parasite rumored to be a working title for the film.[15] Online, Slusho and Colossus had also been discussed as possible titles.[32] Entertainment Weekly also disputed reports that the film would be about a parasite or a colossal Asian robot such as Voltron.[33]

Visitors of the website Ain't It Cool News have pointed out 9/11 allusions based on the destruction in New York City such as the decapitated Statue of Liberty. The film has also drawn alternate reality game enthusiasts that have followed other viral marketing campaigns like those set up for the TV series Lost, the video game Halo 2, the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero, and the upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight. Members of the forums at argn.com and unfiction.com have investigated the background of the film, with the "1-18-08" section at Unfiction generating over 7,700 posts in August 2007. The members have studied photographs on the film's official site, potentially related MySpace profiles,[34] and the Comic-Con teaser poster for the film.[27] A popular piece of fan art posited that the monster was a mutated Humpback Whale.[6]

Viral tie-ins

File:Cloverfield shots.JPG
Photos on the 1-18-08.com viral marketing website.

Puzzle websites containing Lovecraftian elements, such as Ethan Haas Was Right, were originally reported to be connected to the film.[28][30] On July 9 2007, producer J. J. Abrams stated that, while a number of websites were being developed to market the film, the only official site that had been found was 1-18-08.com.[35] At the site, a collection of time-coded photos are provided to visitors to piece together a series of events and interpret their meanings; the pictures can also be flipped over – by repeatedly and rapidly moving the mouse side to side.[36]

As part of the viral marketing campaign, the drink Slusho! has served as a tie-in. The drink had already appeared in producer Abrams' previous creation, the TV series Alias.[37] Viral websites for Slusho! and a Japanese drilling company named Tagruato (タグルアト, Taguruato) were launched to add to the mythology of Cloverfield.[5] When Cloverfield was hosted at Comic-Con 2007, gray Slusho! t – shirts were distributed to attendees.[38] Fans who had registered at the Slusho! website for Cloverfield received e-mails of fictional sonar images before the film's release that showed a deep-sea creature heading toward Manhattan.[39]

Producer Bryan Burk explained the viral tie-in, "[It] was all done in conjunction with the studio… The whole experience in making this movie is very reminiscent [of] how we did Lost."[5] Director Matt Reeves described Slusho! as "part of the involved connectivity" with Abrams' Alias and that the drink represented a "meta-story" for Cloverfield. The director explained, "It's almost like tentacles that grow out of the film and lead, also, to the ideas in the film. And there's this weird way where you can go see the movie and it's one experience… But there's also this other place where you can get engaged where there's this other sort of aspect for all those people who are into that. […] All the stories kind of bounce off one another and inform each other. But, at the end of the day, this movie stands on its own to be a movie. […] The Internet sort of stories and connections and clues are, in a way, a prism and they're another way of looking at the same thing. To us, it's just another exciting aspect of the storytelling."[37]

Merchandise

A four installment manga series by Yoshiki Togawa titled Cloverfield/Kishin (クローバーフィールド/KISHIN, Kurōbāfīrudo/KISHIN) is being released by Japanese publisher Kadokawa Shoten.[40] The story focuses on a Japanese high school student named Kishin Aiba, who somehow bears a connection to the monster.[41]

Based on the successful opening weekend of Cloverfield in theaters, Hasbro began accepting orders for a 14-inch collectible toy figure of the monster with authentic sound[42] and its parasites to be shipped to fans by September 30 2008.[43]

Music and sound

Untitled

Due to its presentation as footage from a consumer digital recorder, Cloverfield has no film score, with the exception of the composition "ROAR! (Cloverfield Overture)" by Michael Giacchino that plays over the end credits. Similarities between "ROAR!" and the music of Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube have been noted, and it has been suggested that Giacchino's overture is a tribute to Ifukube's work.[44][45] The sound track was supervised by William Files[46] and Douglas Murray[47] at Skywalker Sound.

Rob's Party Mix or Cloverfield Mix is a collection of the music played in the opening party sequences of the film that was released exclusively on Apple's iTunes store on January 22, 2008 in lieu of a traditional soundtrack album.[2] The Cloverfield score, "ROAR! (Cloverfield Overture)" by Michael Giacchino that plays over the end credits[48] is not featured on the album, as it is the mixtape played at the party and is not the official soundtrack of the film. This album was distributed to guests at a Cloverfield premier party held at the Dark Room in New York City on January 17, 2008.[49] A complete soundtrack release of all the music in the film, including Giacchino's "ROAR!' end title piece, has now also been released exclusively on iTunes. but was not officially released in retail stores. A CD entitled Rob's Party Mix comes packaged in a special edition of Cloverfield made available for sale in Canadian Wal-Mart stores beginning on April 22, 2008.

Track listing

# Title Performer(s)
1 "West Coast" Coconut Records
2 "Taper Jean Girl" Kings of Leon
3 "Beautiful Girls" Sean Kingston
4 "Do I Have Your Attention" The Blood Arm
5 "Got Your Moments" Scissors for Lefty
6 "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)" Parliament
7 "19-2000" Gorillaz
8 "The Underdog" Spoon
9 "Pistol of Fire" Kings of Leon
10 "Disco Lies" Moby
11 "Do the Whirlwind" Architecture in Helsinki
12 "Grown So Ugly" The Black Keys
13 "Four Winds" Bright Eyes
14 "The Ride" Joan As Policewoman
15 "Seventeen Years" Ratatat
16 "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)" Of Montreal
17 "Fuzz" Mucc

Reception

Cloverfield opened in 3,411 theaters on January 18, 2008 and grossed a total of $16,930,000 on its opening day in the United States and Canada. It made $40,058,229 on its opening weekend, making it the most successful January release to date. Worldwide, it has grossed $166,373,426, making it the first movie in 2008 to gross over $100 million.[50] The film was mostly praised by critics. As of April 27 2008, review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 77% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 173 reviews.[51] According to Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 64, based on 37 reviews.[52] The movie received an average score of 73.5% from 51 film critics according to Movie Tab. [53]

Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle calls the film "the most intense and original creature feature I've seen in my adult moviegoing life […] a pure-blood, grade A, exultantly exhilarating monster movie." He cites Matt Reeves' direction, the "whip-smart, stylistically invisible" script and the "nearly subconscious evocation of our current paranoid, terror-phobic times" as the keys to the film's success, saying that telling the story through the lens of one character's camera "works fantastically well."[54] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter called it "chillingly effective," praising the effects and the film's "claustrophobic intensity." He said that though the characters "aren't particularly interesting or developed," there was "something refreshing about a monster movie that isn't filled with the usual suspects."[55] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly said that the film was "surreptitiously subversive, [a] stylistically clever little gem," and that while the characters were "vapid, twenty-something nincompoops" and the acting "appropriately unmemorable," the decision to tell the story through amateur footage was "brilliant."[56] Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the film is "pretty scary at times" and cites "unmistakable evocations of 9/11." He concludes that "all in all, it is an effective film, deploying its special effects well and never breaking the illusion that it is all happening as we see it."[57]

Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film an "old-fashioned monster movie dressed up in trendy new threads," praising the special effects, "nihilistic attitude" and "post-9/11 anxiety overlay," but said, "In the end, [it's] not much different from all the marauding creature features that have come before it."[58] Scott Foundas of LA Weekly was critical of the film's use of scenes reminiscent of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City and called it "cheap and opportunistic." He suggested that the film was engaging in "stealth" attempts at social commentary and compared this unfavorably to the films of Don Siegel, George A. Romero and Steven Spielberg, saying, "Where those filmmakers all had something meaningful to say about the state of the world and […] human nature, Abrams doesn't have much to say about anything."[59] Manohla Dargis in the New York Times called the allusions "tacky," saying, "[The images] may make you think of the attack, and you may curse the filmmakers for their vulgarity, insensitivity or lack of imagination," but that "the film is too dumb to offend anything except your intelligence." She concludes that the film "works as a showcase for impressively realistic-looking special effects, a realism that fails to extend to the scurrying humans whose fates are meant to invoke pity and fear but instead inspire yawns and contempt."[21] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com calls the film "badly constructed, humorless and emotionally sadistic," and sums up by saying that the film "takes the trauma of 9/11 and turns it into just another random spectacle at which to point and shoot."[60] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune warned that the viewer may feel "queasy" at the references to September 11, but that "other sequences […] carry a real jolt" and that such tactics were "crude, but undeniably gripping." He called the film "dumb," but "quick and dirty and effectively brusque," concluding that despite it being "a harsher, more demographically calculating brand of fun," he enjoyed the film.[48] Bruce Paterson of Cinephilia described the film as "a successful experiment in style but not necessarily a successful story for those who want dramatic closure."

Shaky camerawork

Sign at an AMC theater warning customers

The film's shaky camera style of cinematography leads some who view it inside dark movie theaters to experience vertigo, causing nausea and a temporary loss of balance. Audience members prone to migraines have cited the film as a trigger. Some theaters showing the film posted warnings, informing viewers about the filming style of Cloverfield.[61]

Home video

The DVD was released on April 22,2008 in two versions: the standard single-disc edition and an exclusive "steel-book" special edition that was sold at Suncoast and FYE retailers in the US and Future Shop in Canada. Other store exclusives: an exclusive bonus disc titled "T.J. Miller's Video Diary" with the DVD at all Best Buy retailers, an exclusive mix CD titled "Rob's Goin' to Japan Party Mix" with the DVD at all Target and Wal-Mart retailers and an exclusive ringtone with the DVD at all Kmart and Sears retailers. Borders also has an exclusive booklet encased with their DVD.

The Region 2 DVD will be released on June 9 in both 1-disc and 2-disc editions. The limited steelbook edition will only be available from HMV, while Play.com offers exclusive cover artwork. The HMV-exclusive steelbook contains two discs.

The DVD includes two alternate endings, which vary only slightly. The first alternate ending shows Rob and Beth exiting the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station instead of on the Ferris wheel and features different sirens in the background as Rob talks to the camera. In the second alternate ending, just after the final explosion, Beth can be heard screaming "Rob!", followed by a very brief clip of an unknown person looking at the camera (in the commentary, Matt Reeves said that it was one of the crew members) and brushing rubble off the lens. The film then ends with the original final clip of Rob and Beth on their Coney Island date recording themselves on the ferris wheel as the camera battery dies, with two differences: there is no timestamp in the lower left hand corner of the screen, and there is an additional beeping tone symbolizing the battery dying.[62]

On April 30, 2008, Paramount announced that Cloverfield will be released in a Blu-ray edition on June 3, 2008.[63] It will include a "Crime Scene Investigation" Mode.

Sequel

At the premiere of the film, Matt Reeves talked about possibilities on how a sequel will turn out if the film succeeds.[64] According to Reeves, "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 camera phones and Handycams, uploading it to YouTube… That was kind of exciting thinking about that."[65]

File:GuyFilmingBridgeCloverfield.jpg
Image of the "guy" filming on the side of the bridge, as stated by Reeves.

In another interview, Reeves states:

There's a moment on the Brooklyn Bridge, and there was a guy filming something on the side of the bridge, and Hud sees him filming and he turns over and he sees the ship that's been capsized and sees the headless Statue of Liberty, and then he turns back and this guy's briefly filming him. In my mind that was two movies intersecting for a brief moment, and I thought there was something interesting in the idea that this incident happened and there are so many different points of view, and there are several different movies at least happening that evening and we just saw one piece of another.[6]

Reeves also points out that the end scene on Coney Island shows something falling into the ocean in the background (pointed out by fans to be in the far right from the view out of the ferris wheel), but didn't give out details.[6] Producers Bryan Burk and J. J. Abrams also announced their thoughts to Entertainment Weekly about possible sequel(s). According to Bryan Burk, "The creative team has fleshed out an entire backstory which, if we're lucky, we might get to explore in future films."[66]

Also Abrams states that he does not want to rush into the development of the sequel right away because of the first film's success, instead he wants to create a sequel that is true to the previous film.[66]

At the end of January, Matt Reeves entered early talks with Paramount Pictures to direct a sequel to Cloverfield, which would likely be filmed before Reeves's other project, The Invisible Woman.[67] Reeves now said:

The idea of doing something so differently is exhilarating. We hope that it created a movie experience that is different. The thing about doing a sequel is that I think we all really feel protective of that experience. The key here will be if we can find something that is compelling enough and that is different enough for us to do, then it will probably be worth doing. Obviously it also depends on how Cloverfield does worldwide and all of those things too, but really, for us creatively, we just want to find something that would be another challenge.[68]

In an interview with IGN, J.J Abrams stated that they are still in talks with Paramount. J.J. thought (In his opinion) that it would be fun to work on something different. Both Matt Reeves and Drew Goddard have thought up of different stories for the sequel, but Abrams is only considering the idea of continuing Cloverfield. Paramount is still trying to seal the deal for the sequel.

In an interview with "Attack of the Show", J. J. Abrams had stated that a sequel had not been finalized yet, though Matt Reeves and Paramount are still in talks. In a separate interview, Matt Reeves had stated the same thing. Rumors say that an eventual sequel will be planned for a release in 2009. In the same interview between Abrams and "AotS", Abrams had said that they might abandon the filming style, stating that he and the rest of the crew would like to try something new.

According to J.J. Abrams in another interview, he has said "We're talking about it with Paramount still... but the truth is there's another idea that I'd rather do with the same people than do a sequel of Cloverfield."[69]

References

  1. ^ "Cloverfield UK Release Date". Paramount Pictures. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  2. ^ "Cloverfield official running time". Paramount Pictures. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
  3. ^ "Box office/business for Cloverfield". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  4. ^ "Weekend Box Office". Boxofficemojo. Retrieved 2008-02-26.
  5. ^ a b c Tara DiLullo Bennett (2007-12-17). "Producer Talks Cloverfield". Sci Fi Wire. Retrieved 2007-12-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b c d e Max Evry (2008-01-21). "Reeves Runs Merrily Through Cloverfield". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved 2008-01-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ IMDb Crazy Credits
  8. ^ Reversed Soundclip
  9. ^ a b "Lizzy Caplan: The Meanest Girl in Hollywood?". BlackBook Magazine. 2007-11-15. Retrieved 2007-11-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Alex Billington (2007-07-26). "Comic-Con Live: Paramount Panel - Star Trek, Indiana Jones IV, and More…". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved 2007-09-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "JJ Abrams talks CloverField". Movies Online. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
  12. ^ a b c Borys Kit (2007-07-06). "Paramount rolls in the 'Cloverfield'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-07-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Scott Collura (2007-12-14). "Exclusive: Cloverfield Director Speaks! Part Two". IGN. Retrieved 2007-12-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ a b Peter Sciretta (2007-09-05). "What will Cloverfield/1-18-08 Be Titled?". SlashFilm. Retrieved 2007-09-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ a b Scott Collura (2007-12-14). "Exclusive: Cloverfield Director Speaks!". IGN. Retrieved 2007-12-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Cite error: The named reference "ign" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  16. ^ Bruce Newman (2008-01-18). "'Cloverfield': A monster for the MySpace generation". Mercury News. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Cloverfield-(Commentary by director Matt Reeves) (DVD). Paramount. 2008.
  18. ^ "SONY'S F23 HIGH-DEFINITION CAMERA CUTS ITS TEETH IN THE MAKING OF "CLOVERFIELD"". Sony Electronics. 2008-01-21. Retrieved 2008-01-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Farrah Weinstein (2007-07-16). "Bait Balls of Fire". New York Post. Retrieved 2007-07-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Lisa Blake (2007-08-22). "Bases harnessed for double duty". Variety. Retrieved 2007-08-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ a b Manohla Dargis (2008-01-18). "We're All Gonna Die! Grab Your Video Camera!". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ YouTube - Cloverfield TJ Miller Interview
  23. ^ a b Ryan Rotten (2007-12-14). "EXCL: Cloverfield Director Speaks!". ShockTillYouDrop.com. Retrieved 2007-12-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ Ryan Rotten (2008-01-02). "EXCL: Michael Stahl-David Talks Cloverfield Experience". ShockTillYouDrop.com. Retrieved 2008-01-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ BOTF (2008-03-12). "Tagruato Interview: Cloverfield Lead Creature Designer Neville Page". Retrieved 2008-03-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Olly Richards (2007-11-19). "Exclusive: The New Cloverfield Trailer". Empire. Retrieved 2007-11-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ a b Omar L. Gallaga (2007-08-03). "To market a movie, no name is needed; just create mystery and some Web buzz". Austin American-Statesman. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ a b Anthony Breznican (2007-07-09). "Mystifying trailer transforms marketing". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-07-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. ^ Lisa Rose (2007-07-09). "Hush-hush project stirs wild speculation". The Star Ledger. Retrieved 2007-07-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. ^ a b "Trailer for Abrams film lost on moviegoers". The Guardian. 2007-07-11. Retrieved 2007-07-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. ^ Chris Tilly (2007-07-11). "What is 'Cloverfield'?". Time Out. Retrieved 2007-07-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ Greg Morago (2007-08-22). "Our summer of mystery ads". Daily Press. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  33. ^ Jeff Jensen (2007-07-26). "J.J.'s Mystery Movie: Secrets revealed!". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-07-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ chapinyoung (2008-01-17). "Cloverfield's" Fake MySpace Pages". Current. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. ^ Harry Knowles (2007-07-09). "JJ Abrams drops Harry a Line on all this 1-18-08 stuff!". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved 2007-07-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. ^ Rodney Chester (2007-08-11). "Movie codenamed Cloverfield next blockbuster". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 2007-08-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  37. ^ a b Silas Lesnick (2007-12-14). "IESB EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Cloverfield Director Matt Reeves!". IESB.net. Retrieved 2007-12-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. ^ Larry Carroll (2007-07-27). "Comic-Con: J.J. Abrams' Secret Project And 'The Dark Knight' Go Guerrilla With Marketing Tactics". MTV. Retrieved 2007-12-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. ^ Will Pavia (2008-01-02). "The cloak-and-dagger approach to hype". The Australian. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. ^ Kadokawa Shoten (2008-01-19). "Kadokawa Shoten Official Website". Kadokawa Shoten. Retrieved 2008-01-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. ^ Anime News Network (2008-01-16). "Shonen Ace Posts Cloverfield Movie Tie-In Manga Online". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2008-01-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ Cloverfield (2008-03-06). "Hasbro toys with 'Cloverfield' monster". Project Cloverfield. Retrieved 2008-03-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. ^ Marc Graser (2008-01-21). "Hasbro toys with 'Cloverfield' monster". Variety. Retrieved 2008-01-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. ^ Cloverfield review, Syracuse New Times, January 2008.
  45. ^ Ain't it Cool News, March 2008.
  46. ^ Will Files
  47. ^ Douglas Murray (III)
  48. ^ a b Michael Phillips (2008-01-16). "Movie review: Cloverfield". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2008-01-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  49. ^ "The "Rob's" Party Sweepstakes Official Rules". Paramount Pictures Corporation. 2008-01-07. Retrieved 2008-01-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  50. ^ "Cloverfield Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  51. ^ "Cloverfield – Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  52. ^ "Cloverfield (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  53. ^ "Cloverfield Reviews - Movie Tab". Retrieved 2008-05-24.
  54. ^ Marc Savlov (2008-01-18). "Cloverfield". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  55. ^ Michael Rechtshaffen (2008-01-17). "Bottom Line: It's "The Blair Godzilla Project"--and that's a compliment". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  56. ^ Lisa Schwarzbaum (2008-01-16). "Movie Review: Cloverfield". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  57. ^ Roger Ebert (2008-01-17). "Review: Cloverfield". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  58. ^ Todd McCarthy (2008-01-16). "Cloverfield review". Variety. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  59. ^ Scott Foundas (2008-01-16). "Cloverfield Is a Horror". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  60. ^ Stephanie Zacharek (2008-01-17). "Cloverfield: Do we really need the horror of 9/11 to be repackaged and presented to us as an amusement-park ride?". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  61. ^ koco.com (2008-01-22), "Hit Horror Flick Leaving Local Moviegoers Queasy." Oklahoma City News, [1].
  62. ^ Cloverfield Special Features – Alternate Endings (DVD). Paramount Pictures. April 2008.
  63. ^ Blu-ray Disc Release Dates | High Def Digest
  64. ^ SpookyDan (2008-01-19). "'Cloverfield' Sequel News". Fearnet. Retrieved 2008-01-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  65. ^ SpookyDan (2008-01-17). "'Cloverfield' Sequel Talk, Violent Plans!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 2008-01-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  66. ^ a b SpookyDan (2008-01-27). "'Cloverfield' Monster Has History, More Sequel Talk!". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-01-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  67. ^ Michael Fleming (2008-01-30). "Paramount sows 'Cloverfield' sequel". Variety. Retrieved 2008-01-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  68. ^ Orlando Parfitt (2008-02-01). "Matt Reeves Clarifies Cloverfield Sequel Status". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-02-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  69. ^ J.J. Abrams to Pass on 'Cloverfield' Sequel?! Bloody-Disgusting.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-16.
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