It is great that even in this day and age, cinema can still surprise us.
Nearly ten years ago to this very day, Cloverfield was released in cinemas under a cloud of mystery.
The trailers had everyone guessing it to be some kind of updated version of Godzilla, or perhaps a found-footage take on the Power Rangers?
Instead, we got a gripping and totally undervalued 9/11 experience told through the lens of a monster movie.
On a $25 million budget, it made over $170 million worldwide, and helped kick-start the directing career of Matt Reeves (who would go on to take on Dawn/War Of The Planet Of The Apes and the upcoming Batman movie).
Everyone kind of forgot about the franchise until a little over eight years later, when the surprise trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane dropped, just two months before the movie was released in theatres.
The fortified basement set thriller (which, eventually, tied itself back into the events of the first movie… kind of…) featured a supremely creepy John Goodman and a great leading lady performance by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
An even smaller budget ($15 million) set against a much smaller backdrop still lead to some decent profits ($110 million worldwide), but now everybody was on to producer J.J. Abrams’ tricks, and began to question every vaguely sci-fi’y movie to see if it, too, would tie back into the Cloverfield world…
Which brings us to… Untitled Cloverfield Sequel.
A few months back, it was called God Particle, but that was back when it was originally to be released in February 2017. Then October 2017. And now, IMDb have confirmed the release date of 2 February 2018.
That is less than 6 weeks away, and so far we haven’t got a poster, a trailer, a still image, an interview, a teaser… nothing.
Here is what we do know:
The plot involves a scientific experiment aboard the space station involving a particle accelerator has unexpected results, the astronauts find themselves isolated. Following their horrible discovery, the space station crew must fight for survival.
The crew will consist of some very recognisable names, including Elizabeth Debicki (GOTG2), Daniel Bruhl (Inglorious Basterds), Chris O’Dowd (Moone Boy), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beauty & The Beast), David Oyelowo (Selma), Ziyi Zhang (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), and more besides.
The screenwriters have separately written 22 Jump Street and Star Trek Beyond, the cinematographer is the same guy who shot Star Wars: The Force Awakens, while director Julius Onah has one feature to his name to date, 2015’s The Girl Is In Trouble, which we’ve never heard of…
Aside from that, we’re in the dark, and there is no way of guessing how the events of the space station tie into the Cloverfield universe, although apparently during the viral campaign leading up to 10 Cloverfield Lane, this uncovered soundclip from the International Space Station links that movie to this one.
Clip via Chickenman456
We’ll know more in early February, but keep your eyes pealed for the first poster and trailer (and anything!) within the next few weeks.
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