1-18-08 Project Cloverfield - Warning! Spoilers

The Dork Knight
Remember those special Dark Knight reels they gave out to lucky Joker fanatics last week? Well, Charlie (the Dark Knight guru)found one online and it looks like the Joker has gone through the entire trailer and made it his own. Very nice touch!

Paramount has officially given time to the Cloverfield Blu-ray as evident of the high-end version missing from the April 22nd launch. Brian has tipped us off that Paramount has officially set a date for the Blu-ray version of Cloverfield is set for June 3rd.

And although Blu-ray represents a small fraction of the DVD sales (around 2%) the release of the Cloverfield on Blu-ray will bring to life more of the viral backstory of the movie.

The Joker has produced a secret screening of the latest Dark Knight Trailer. Participants unlocked codes and clues to find themselves on a scavenger hunt. More details from First Showing indicate a safe having to be cracked by lucky participants for clues.

Here's what went down in London:
Thanks for tip, Charlie.

Nicely done, Joker. You have successfully gathered your troops. For those of us unlucky enough to decorate ourselves in Joker masks we'll have to wait to see the trailer one of two ways. Either online bootleg or wait until the alleged release of the trailer with the upcoming Speed Racer flick.

One of the bonus disc offerings for last week's Cloverfield premiere onto DVD was a Best Buy exclusive featuring some behind-the-scenes video of TJ Miller (Hud) and his trusty camera.


TJ Miller Cloverfield, Part 1


TJ Miller Cloverfield, Part 2


TJ Miller Cloverfield, Part 3

Charlie, our Dark Knight Viral Guru, has given us a nice, new site featuring 5 new international posters for the upcoming Batman sequel. These are nice Batman posters featuring the characters holding up their symbols. It's in Spanish so to check out what they say in English you can see the /Film update that popped up soon after.

/Film also has up the Joker poster as well as the 'gift' that was received from the Joker featuring a note from the crazy one along with a mask and a Joker card.




The updates for the Joker's website, WhySoSerious, are starting to come in with instructions. Each of the portraits has a timer and city associated with it. London, seen above, is in with instructions on where to meet and what to look for. Be sure to check back later today as most of the cities associated with the portraits have their timers finishing in the next few hours.

My official Dark Knight Viral guru Charlie has pinpointed a new Batman poster and link to a new Dark Knight viral site as mentioned on /Film. First off, the new poster features a killer outline of the Batman logo in flames with the tagline "Welcome to a world without rules." 

Matt Reeves sat down with MTV to talk about his new movie, the "Invisible Woman," as well as spoilers and sequels in the Cloverfield world. Here's a few highlights from the interview that might answer a few questions.  What happens to Marlena after she's bit.  Or, how about that darn Cloverfield sequel we hear rumors about?

Matt Reeves showing his skills

MTV: We all remember the scene where the medics realize that Marlena was bitten by one of the little monsters. They pull her behind a see-through curtain, and then there's blood all over the place. What happened there?

Reeves: She explodes. All of the medical technicians and all of the military start reacting to the realization that she has been bitten, because other people had been bitten and had horrible fates befall them. If you watch closely, you'll actually see one guy in particular get wheeled [past the camera], and his innards have exploded from the inside-out. ... Apparently, there is quite a bad effect from the venom of these little parasites.

MTV: Are they baby monsters? Will they grow up to be identical to the big monster?

Reeves: No, that was never our intention.

MTV: Where does the sequel stand at this point?

Reeves: In the very beginning stages. We all had such a crazy experience making the movie. It was so unusual and challenging to make a movie from that point of view and under these conditions, and one of the things we all promised each other was that this experience was so special professionally and creatively that we don't want to just make another one. [It needs to have] something fresh and new to it. We have a couple ideas, but it's so early.

Be sure to check out the rest of the great interview with Cloverfield Director Matt Reeves.

Our pal Charlie has been keeping us up to date on the Batman: The Dark Knight viral world. He pointed out that the Gotham Police Dept. is sending him some emails for his involvement. The viral world of the Batman movie is one of the most involved I have ever seen. With the implementation of "Operation Slipknot" today (details below) there have been a couple of more viral sites and even more questions emerging.

I'll try to brush over some of the viral sites for Batman that are active right now. Some of this might be redundant to a few but bear with me as I try to catch up.


Det. Jim Gordon is issuing e-mails to people like Charlie to help get involved to nab some criminals. Their latest effort is "Operation Slipknot." Here is the first message sent in by reader Charlie:

Within the last twenty-four hours, many of your colleagues intercepted packages intended for the 30 fugitives pictured here.

These informants are now receiving this critical evidence.

MCU is standing by. We need the information in the packages to be uploaded AS SOON AS IT IS RECEIVED. We will process the information and implement our final apprehension/extradition plans by 6:00 pm.

Time is of the essence. Do not let these suspects escape the long arm of Gotham City justice at the last minute. Upload the information immediately.

/Film has broken down the site some more to help us all catch up. When you enter in the information into the "Operation Slipknot" site they claim you'll receive this message:

"Gotham Police Major Crimes Unit, in cooperation with the GPD Internal Affairs Division, needs you to help track down numerous offenders that are fugitives from justice. Interestingly, we’ve tracked all of these individuals to the same last known location: Gotham Intercontinental Hotel. But we don’t know where they’ve gone from there.

Call the hotel and convince the concierge to ship you a certain package that’s been sent there for each fugitive. Use the provided intel and whatever means you can to convince him that you’re the intended recipient, your travel plans have changed, and he needs to send the package to you. Once received, you should have all you need to fill in the blanks as to that fugitive’s location.

We will add details about additional fugitives as they become available. Time is of the essence, as we have only a short time before the trail runs cold. Your cooperation in this operation will go a long way. Good luck." (source)

As you can see there is another link embedded in there for the Gotham Intercontinental Hotel. Once there you can call the phone number (1-866-306-5589) on the bottom of the page and leave a message for the concierge. It's a recording stating they cannot answer your call but if you wait about 20 seconds after that a message system comes up.

Film School Rejects claims : "If you click on the “Assignment” button at the top right of the screen (of "Operation Slipknot"), you will see that you need to call the Gotham Intercontinental Hotel Concierge (1-866-306-5589) and convince them to send you a care package that has been left there for each of the listed fugitives. Once you receive that package, it will show you all of the information you need to proceed.


It looks like a lot of roots for "Operation Slipknot" began with the games from ClownTravelAgency.com from earlier this month. To get caught up on the Travel Agency see here for details. It involves some purple bowling balls. But the mastermind behind this game wasn't Heath Ledger's Joker. Nope. It was Commissioner Jim Gordon of the GPDMCU and his clever April's Fool Joke.

The Clown Travel Agency led people to the Acme Security Systems (their main page here, the viral password goes here) where you enter in a password to get a voice verification. Try this yourself and you'll get a message from Gordon telling you he's now going to get you to work for him. Listen to the message from Gordon.

Whew! That should get us up to date on the GPDMCU aspect of the viral arm of Batman. Or, does it?


With the "Slipknot" site out today there is reports of a new travel agency called Kinsey Travel Agency. It looks like there's a spot to enter a flight number for more info.

The Dark Knight Viral campaign is being spearheaded by 4orty 2wo Entertainment. They're doing a great job of keeping the fans busy while waiting for the movie to appear.

A new updated post has appeared at Missing Teddy Hanssen. Aylse is still trying to get people to focus on the fact that Teddy is still missing and there's more facts to be uncovered.

Having one of those days - those "stare at the ceiling" days. I feel like it would be really easy for me to go crazy right now. Just give in and go completely bats**t insane. Maybe I never even had a brother to begin with. He's always been lost.

I've lobbied, held fundraisers, and slept outside government buildings. Everyone I could think to call I called. I have everyone's pity. But there's always more to do. The growth of people is great but I can't sort through all these theories. I don't know what to believe anymore. Everyone thinks they know. But no one knows for sure where Teddy is, do they? No one is honestly doing anything to bring him back. The attention is great - but people could care less whether he actually comes back or not.

Why isn't anything happening? Why am I in the exact same place I was 4 months ago? Why won't anybody tell me what's going on? What do I have to do to get the truth?????

I've gotta make more calls. It's part of being a crazy person. You don't ever stop.

J.J. Abrams is rallying around the Cloverfield DVD release by telling people that the hand-held style of the flick lends itself more to the small screen than theaters. Being the great promoter he is, Abrams wisely held off saying this until the movie left theaters!

Abrams told Reuters: "The thing about this movie - probably more than any I think - is that it is better on DVD than in the theatre. Because the movie is like a videotape. It lives on your TV. In many ways, it is supposed to be viewed on a (TV) monitor." (source)

If you held off on watching Cloverfield in the theaters because of the hand-held style than Abrams does have a valid point. Shaky movies like Cloverfield won't upset your stomach as much on smaller screens. I learned that one from the "Bourne" series.

The best part of grabbing Cloverfield on DVD (besides the Roar! Cloverfield Overture at the end credits) is finally getting my hands on a decent copy of the alleged object falling from the sky right smack at the end. In the Coney Island scene while the camera is pointed out of the Ferris Wheel there was something that fell into the ocean. With the nice DVD quality you can see that indeed there is something that falls from the sky. Read more about the Cloverfield ending here.

If you can spot the difference in the altered frame above from the Cloverfield movie than you'll love the Cloverfield Files. This site adds onto the DVD with extra videos and games. You get inside and once you beat the challenges offered, like finding the alterations above, you'll get a special video from behind the scenes of Cloverfield. Pretty fun.

Thanks to Christina for noting that T.I.D.O. and Teddy Hanssen are still at odds. Or rather, Teddy's sister Alyse Hanssen who is trying to track down her brother. There's a new site called Missing Teddy Hanssen that is worth a look. Teddy, from Jamie and Teddy, was involved in the Cloverfield viral world and his image even graces the 1-18-08 site.

A comment on T.I.D.O.'s site is from Missing Teddy Hanssen:

MissingTeddyHanssen
04/15/08 4:05 pm

That’s what I thought. You’re pathetic. And if you think I’m giving up on my brother you’re stupider than I gave you credit for. Anyone who’s tired of being lied to should come to my blog. We have to stick together. There are more people out there affected by this. I can’t be the only one. (source)

The time has come to potentially wrap up the Cloverfield saga. With the release of the DVD April 22nd we're looking at a virtual end to the Cloverfield world we know. Speculation has always surrounded the movie since I first saw that killer teaser trailer back with the Transformers movie on July 2nd, 2007. The future of Cloverfield holds nothing but speculation. Where it heads lies in the fate of producer J.J. Abrams and Paramount Studios.

Can we expect another movie? It's hard to tell. Talk of a sequel was a given since Cloverfield did big bucks worldwide in theaters but it's too soon to tell what will occur with that. A Japanese Magna popped up but didn't make too much noise. The viral machines (Slusho, Tagruato, TIDO) all but shut down after the first few weeks of the movies release. In the end we're left wondering the fate of Cloverfield. At least there's always Aladygma to hold onto.

So get ready to grab your copy of the Cloverfield DVD tomorrow with killer features like "two alternate endings, deleted scenes, commentary by director Matt Reeves and tons of Easter Eggs make Cloverfield a must-own. Now, figure out where to buy it, since no less than four special store-specific editions will be available, ranging from a Steelbook case (FYE and Suncoast), exclusive ringtone (K-Mart and Sears), "T.J. Miller's Video Diary" bonus DVD (Best Buy) and our recommendation, a "Rob's Goin' to Japan Party Mix" CD (Target). (source)

If you're a fan of Lost and wouldn't mind winning a trip to the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con than you'll want to hop on over to the new Lost-scape site. ABC has started up Lost-scape for fans so they can explore and interact with iconic items from the hit series Lost.

Various items help link fans to clips and full episodes on ABC.com as well as create the contest element of the site. So enter for your chance to win a trip to San Diego and if you need someone to take up that second ticket let me know!

(via Movieweb) Michael Stahl-David doesn't quite have the name recognition of a Cruise, Hanks or DiCaprio... yet. You might not know this young actor by name, but you might have seen or heard about this movie Cloverfield he was in. Stahl-David portrayed the lead, Rob, in the film, which is coming to DVD on April 22. I had a chance to talk to Michael on the phone about his whole Cloverfield experience.

Movieweb: I was in Santa Monica recently and I happened to drive past Cloverfield Boulevard. Have you driven past or on that street since the movie came out?

Michael Stahl-David: Yeah. It's funny.

Movieweb: Yeah, it's just odd driving by, thinking, 'That's the street.'

Michael Stahl-David: Right. You heard the story about that, right?

Movieweb: Yeah, yeah.

Michael Stahl-David: Yeah, I know. It's just funny. It's so mundane, it's a quiet place. Who gets the inspiration for carnage here? Oh, JJ Abrams does, OK. (...continue Michael Stahl-David Interview)

Some readers have received an email from Gotham Police Lt. Jim Gordon. Here's a copy of the email from Charlie who believes he received it from signing up with the Harvey Dent campaign. Thanks for the copy, Charlie.

My friend,

Indictments are about to be handed down. If you don't want your name on one, we'll need your full cooperation in an upcoming operation. In case you haven't heard, we are struggling with a bit of corruption in the department. I'm not about to let the Gotham PD collapse in on itself, so we're taking action.

We've identified a group of offenders that need to be apprehended. Problem is, most of these cops are hightailing it out of the city. But a C.I. just like you just gave us some information on their last known whereabouts. Now all we need is to catch them.

This is where you come in. Consider yourself on deck. I'll contact you next week, and let's just say it's in your best interest to play along. County's not a place you want to spend the rest of your life.

Lt. Jim Gordon, MCU

The email originates from the the Gotham Police Department Major Crimes Unit (GPDMCU) who are online as well as the Gotham Police Department. It looks like the GPD is still recruiting new cadets if you're interested.

Overall it looks like the viral work for Batman is coming along real nicely. The GPD sites are nice and you can contact the MCU (along with Jim Gordon) at this contact@gpdmcu.com.

If you contact them you should get an auto response:

If you remember a few months back there was an anonymous source working with the Cloverfield DVD that mentioned Paramount was trying to rush a water-down version of the movie for Blu-Ray. Paramount was working on a high def version for HD-DVD but as we all know that format has died off. Sadly, there was not enough time to format that version for the new standard, Blu-Ray, and a ton of features were set to be scrapped.

It looks like Paramount has heard the fans for now and does not look to release a Blu-Ray version of Cloverfield with the standard DVD on April 22nd. I still cannot find a release date for the Cloverfield Blu-ray and no one is talking. For now, look for different versions of the Cloverfield standard DVD to be released including mutli-disc sets and special buys.

Cloverfield Subway Parasites Visual Effects

Cloverfield (Special Edition) DVD Behind the Scenes - Creating The Monster

One huge supporter of J.J. Abrams sitting in the directors chair for the upcoming Star Trek flick is the one person who you might want approval from. Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr., the son of the late creator of the Star Trek series, is impressed with the work of Abrams and is quite pleased of his selection to direct the early years of the Star Trek franchise.

"J.J. is such a regular guy, and seems so much like a fan because he gets it," Roddenberry said. "While he has to work the way you have to work in Hollywood and balance what the studio wants, he's really on the side of the fans. He really tries to stay true of the continuity and stay true to canon."

Meanwhile Leonard Nimoy is proud of Abrams joining the staff of the Enterprise as well. A great script goes along way. But, in the hands of a great director Nimoy expects a fantastic take on the Star Trek universe.

WIRED.com has broken down all the versions of the upcoming Cloverfield DVD for us, which is due out next Tuesday.

The Cloverfield DVD will be released a week from tomorrow and already some DVD reviews are starting to trickle in. This review takes a detailed view at the movie as well as the extras. One thing most fans are interest in are the Bonus Features which this review takes a good look at. They also point out some Easter Eggs for the die-hard fans and mention that the audio commentary by director Matt Reeves is well worth the listen.

ABC has announced the season finale for Lost will be a 2-hour special episode. Lost will return to wrap up this season when it returns to the air Thursday, April 24th.

The Lost Finale will"Lost" Finale airs 9:00-11:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 29.

Some quick notes about the upcoming Star Trek movie being directed by Bad Robot mastermind J.J. Abrams. One big note is the budget which is being reported well below the horribly before-mentioned $200 Million. The below text is from Screenrant via /Film but if you notice the part about where Steven Spielberg helped J.J. Abrams decide to take the project I have added another link for more info.

Screenrant has a report from a Star Trek panel this past weeknd at Creation Entertainment’s 16th Annual Grand Slam: The Sci-Fi Summitin Burbank, CA. Here are some highlights:

* The movie will be rated PG-13 and have a budget “far below” $200 million. A $160 million price-tag has been floating around the web for months now.

* The most interesting tidbit revealed a story (I had yet to hear) about of how JJ Abrams came onto the project. Apparently Steven Spielberg read the script and helped convince J.J. Abrams to sign on to the project. TrekMovie reports that Spielberg also visited the set during shooting scenes on the Enterprise and helped JJ Abrams work out a scene to help ‘with the action’

* Leonard Nimoy also admitted that “it would have been damaging to the story to put Shatner in the film.” As much as I want to see William Shatner in the film, an attemp to erase Captain Kirk’s death from Star Trek: Generations would waste valuable screen time, and just serve to sidetrack the story.

* The USS Enterprise will be assembled in space, although parts of it will be assembled on Earth.

* Screenwriter Roberto Orci claims that the film was pushed back because “Paramount really wants it to be a summer blockbuster.”

* There is at least one Star Trek reference in Transformers 2

Cloverfield Clues has found a nice blurp about The Pixel Farm who helped provide some technical work for the Cloverfield movie.

According this promo piece on The Pixel Farm's website, Double Negative used TPF's visual FX tools on Cloverfield. The article is a little on the technical side, but there are some nice behind-the-scenes pictures of the FX work.

Shock Till You Drop.com is offering 5 Cloverfield DVD's to give away to lucky fans. The five winners will be picked randomly after you send an email to this site. Good luck!

Also the site is offering up the news that Best Buy will be packaging an exclusive Bonus Disc to be bundled with the Cloverfield DVD when it gets released April 22. The artwork is pictured above and features "TJ Miller's Video Diary" (artwork below). It will include nearly 30-minutes of behind-the-scenes footage with T.J. Miller - the talkative, and resilient, camera operator of the film."

A nice viral video for Morgan Spurlock's new doc "Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?" gives us a sneak peak at the first five minutes of the movie.

Thanks to Charlie for the tip on the Gotham Times updating. Harvey Dent ran his DA campaign a few weeks back and the Gotham Times reported on it as well as the Joker hijacking the site and giving his version. Turns out Harvey Dent is in need for a new toupee.

The Gotham Times is a 4 page issue but if you click on the "ha" in the "GoTHam" title on top you'll go to the Joker's version called the Ha Ha Times. Each of the 4 pages gets a different perspective edited by the Joker himself.

1-18-08.com has received their first update since the opening week of Cloverfield. The depicted picture is of Missing Teddy Hanssen who was last seen on 12-07-07. This coincides with the Jamie and Teddy viral videos that had Teddy and Jamie swapping short, personal videos.

Teddy mentioned at one point that there was trouble aboard his station and captured by Tagruato agents. Teddy even sent Jamie some of the Slusho ingredient. Thanks Jess for the tip!

While I ponder whether or not to give away a Cloverfield DVD to a lucky visitor it looks like the group at M&C is giving away 5 copies of the movie. The best I can tell the site is based out of Puerto Rico and the contest is open to U.S. residents only. Just shoot them an e-mail with some info to get registered.

Rumors of Tom Cruise visiting the set of J.J. Abrams Star Trek have popped up a few times over the last 6 months. Last week the news was fired up again by MSNBC who claimed Tom Cruise stopped by the set of the movie to talk with pal J.J. The two worked together on Abrams first full-length big screen direction gig MI: 3.

The rumors of Aladygma have surfaced again via Kevin Powers at First Showing. It's been mentioned that Aladygma is the codename for a possible Cloverfield sequel. Powers breaks down the clues from the odd site for Aladygma and tries to make a connection with Cloverfield including this German video.


Also, Powers looks at The Night Shot, a funky website filled with cryptic clues. Use the 'Ctrl + A' (highlight) feature to see parts of the site. At this point there's still not enough info to find a connection to Cloverfield. Something is brewing out there, though. We just need a few more pieces of the puzzle to get started.