Is This Actually the Sequel to Cloverfield?
An atomic bombshell dropped on the internet in the form of a new trailer for the mysterious film 10 Cloverfield Lane, a new production due out in March from Paramount Pictures and producer J.J. Abrams. Of course, the title suggests that the film is the long-awaited sequel to the 2008, found footage monster movie Cloverfield, which saw a group of people trying to escape a giant monster’s destruction of New York. This new film is not found footage, and it’s a decidedly different premise. You can check out the first trailer and poster for the film below.
Cloverfield dropped in early 2008, and made $170 million worldwide off of a $25 million budget. Some sort of sequel or follow-up seemed like a no brainer, but it never materialized. Fans have been waiting for a sequel for quite some time. The film also had a really unique marketing campaign that really captured the imagination of the movie-going public at the time.
10 Cloverfield Lane, whatever it is, is not a found footage movie like Cloverfield. It looks to be shot with a traditional narrative. What can be cleaned from the trailer is that three people, (John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr.) are stuck underground in some sort of bomb shelter. The trailer suggests that Winstead’s character might be there against her will, and she really wants out. However, it looks like something sinister is going on at the surface.
Based on the title, everyone is assuming this is the Cloverfield sequel, but is it really that simple? In a statement to Collider, producer J.J. Abrams called this film a “blood relative” to Cloverfield. The usually mysterious and vague Abrams seems to be avoiding the use of the word sequel. Is this really set after the Cloverfield monster’s destruction of New York? Has its parasitic spawn made the planet uninhabitable? It’s hard to really tell. Going by the J.J. Abrams mystery box style, saying this is an actual sequel almost seems too easy.
Regardless, the film’s release is actually less than two months away. So the answers will be revealed soon. 10 Cloverfield Lane hits theaters on March 11. The film is directed by Dan Trachtenberg, from a script by Josh Campbell, Matt Stuecken and Damien Chazelle.