1-18-08 Project Cloverfield - Warning! Spoilers

(from BH) "Meanwhile, some new images from the movie have arrived in our in-box thanks to reader Garth. The new images (or at least, they’re new to me) still don’t show the movie’s creatures, just a lot of promo stills of characters running, a soldier firing a bazooka, and survivors filming themselves. Which makes you wonder — if weird looking creatures are trying to eat you, would you really be taking the time to film everything? Seriously?" (source)

"I have seen the trailer for the monster movie coming from producer JJ Abrams on January 18, 2008. The trailer, which was dated last week and lasts 2 minutes and 16 seconds, will debut in front of Beowulf on November 16th, and it's supposed to be when the title is announced. The version of the trailer I saw had the title attached at the end, so unless this title card was a temporary placeholder for the real title, this movie is called... wait for it...

Cloverfield.

Yep, the name we heard from the start. This does make me think that maybe this trailer, marked as Trailer #1, V.17, with "Newest FX Shots", could change between now and the 16th, especially in regards to the name. We'll see. In the meantime, here's a rundown of what I saw in the trailer (based on the notes I took when I was shown a poor quality copy of the trailer. I was only allowed to watch it twice):

It opens with text:

Multiple sightings of case designate 'Cloverfield'
Camera retrieved at incident site 'U.S. 447'
(Area formerly known as Central Park)

Then we see the footage from the teaser trailer, mostly fast forwarded up to the end, with the explosion and the Statue of Liberty's head landing in the middle of the street. Then there's a guy speaking into the camera.

Guy: My name is Robert Hawkins. Approximately seven hours ago, someTHING attacked the city.

There are flashes of chaos. Much of the trailer is made up of split second moments, and when combined with the fact that it's extreme shaky cam style and that I was watching a terrible copy, it can be hard to make things out. There's a helicopter shot of the headless Statue of Liberty.

Guy again: I have no idea what it is. If you found this,if you're watching this thing, you know more about it than i do.

Then there's a shot of jets flying overhead, in daylight.

A title card reads 'From producer JJ Abrams'

There's more flashes of chaos, there's a guy on a cellphone trying to find out where 'Beth' is, and then there's a girl yelling, 'We cannot go in the middle of the city! we've got to get out of here!'

More chaos. More quick shots. I imagine this stuff will be picked apart when the trailer debuts online.

Over this is what seems to be a conversation between an Army guy and a girl.

Army dude: There's nothing we can do right now

Girl: do you know what that thing is?

Army dude: Whatever it is, it's winning.

More flashes. An argument:

Guy 1: We have no idea what's out there!

Guy 2: I don't care what's out there. Listen to me - she's dying!

Then there's footage of army guys running and shadows on a wall. Shadows of a screaming woman being attacked by a small monster (possibly two - either she's being pulled away from the monster by someone behind her or there's another monster behind her). It's confirmed: the movie has a big beast and small ones. Like the American Godzilla.

People are hiding in a store, and there are huge thumps making everything shake. The windows of the store explode in.

The big sequence is next: Army guys running up a street, firing into the air. Tanks come up behind them, firing. Rockets launch up.

We see the big monster briefly passing between two buildings. I couldn't make it out at all, but it appeared to be HUGE.

Characters race down subway steps, there's a giant explosion, the cameraman is down, there's a figure in a tunnel, people are yelling 'Run!' and running through the tunnel.

Outside of Central Park, a horse drawn carriage goes by.

Guy: Are you still filming?

Cameraman: Yeah. People are going to want to know... how it all went down.

Shot of the Brooklyn Bridge. A helicopter taking off. Some chaos. Then inside the copter girls screaming as the copter spins out of control.

Cut to black, then the title comes up: Cloverfield.

Then the text: End of tape

Then the release date: 1-18-08

So the info I gleaned from this:

The title is Cloverfield.
There are smaller monsters.
This movie will quite probably make a lot of people motion sick." (source)

A little side note to ponder while we wait on more Cloverfield/1-18-08 movie news to appear.

A few people have commented on forums about one of the Cloverfield characters alleged MySpace profiles when one character in particular, Lily, mentioned attending a speech by Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and referred to Clinton as our "countries next President." [more]

The addition of political views to a MySpace blog is innocent enough. However, there might be more to this little connection than just a MySpace profile.

Katie McGrath Abrams, a public relations exec and wife of "Cloverfield" producer J.J. Abrams, is part of a group of Hollywood executives which have teamed with a veteran Washington Democratic to create a political production company with an eye toward playing a major role in the 2008 election.

This group is called First Tuesday Media and has kept a low profile since being formed last year. So low of a profile that it was just this week that the organization was announced/discovered after being founded last year as reported by the Washington Post (see: Hollywood Players Form Political Production Company)

First Tuesday's goal is to utilize the creative minds of Hollywood to make various content, including web based and television media, with specific intent to push a political agenda.

With a critical Presidential election gearing up it will be interesting to see how or if First Tuesday Media will be involved with the Cloverfield project. If the movie continues its viral ways and the characters start to develop through their social networks like MySpace, it will be interesting to see if First Tuesday dips their toes into the Cloverfield pool.

The relationship of First Tuesday and JJ Abrams has already overtaken the Abrams marital connection. According to the Resumé of Rosser Goodman, a 1st A.D. on various movies, TV shows, and commercials, Rosser worked with director JJ Abrams for a "Get Out The Vote" commercial in 2006 for First Tuesday Media Productions.