1-18-08 Project Cloverfield - Warning! Spoilers

"J.J. Abrams wanted to keep the movie's very existence under wraps until the debut of the teaser, which he'd already sketched out. ''When I was a kid, a trailer was the first place I ever heard about a movie,'' he says. ''I just thought the greatest thing in the world, the thing that would just blow my mind, would be if I saw a trailer for a movie that totally intrigued me but I had never heard of before.''

In April 2007, Abrams learned that in order to get Cloverfield's teaser hitched to Transformers, the filmmakers would have to submit something to Paramount ASAP. Problem was, filming hadn't started yet. In fact, Cloverfield's screenwriter, Drew Goddard, wasn't even finished with the movie's script due to the demands of his day job as a coexecutive producer on Lost. So instead of cobbling something together from existing footage, as most filmmakers do, Abrams & Co. awarded the teaser a shoot of its own.

According to Reeves, ''a large part of our 12-week prep for the whole movie was used just to prepare for the teaser.'' The actors, who had auditioned for the film without even knowing it was a monster movie, felt crunched too. ''We were like, 'What? We don't even have a script!' They gave us a couple pages of outline and we just went with it,'' says Odette Yustman, whose character spends most of the movie trapped in her apartment awaiting rescue. Improvising proved to be a blessing for the crew.

The film ''had a lot of complicated logistical issues,'' says Reeves. ''How do we do the special effects? How do we make it all look naturalistic? How do we edit? We used the trailer as a workshop; the experience taught us how to make the movie.''

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Did you cast lesser-known actors in order for the story to be more relatable?

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"I can say vague things about it," hedges the 22-year-old Vancouver actress about this Friday's hush-hush horror thriller. Lucas plays the character Lily in Cloverfield.

"It's about a group of friends who are throwing a going-away party and they're documenting the night with their video camera when there's an explosion. They race to the roof and then to the street and there's a monster attacking (New York City)."

In other words, Lucas is about as informative as a random Google search -- or maybe less so.

Aside from its hand-held conceit, one of the ways Cloverfield -- the progeny of J.J. Abrams, the big brain behind Alias, Lost, Mission Impossible III and the forthcoming Star Trek reboot -- has distinguished itself is a viral marketing campaign that has made it the buzz of the blogosphere. (source)

(via IESB) "On the eve of his departure for Japan, Rob (Michael Stahl-David) sees his going-away party as an opportunity to confess unresolved feelings and tie up loose ends. His agenda takes an unexpected turn when a jolt shakes the revelers. The crowd quiets down to watch news reports of an earthquake, then rushes to the roof to assess the damage. A fireball explodes on the distant horizon. A power failure follows. Confusion gives way to panic as the partygoers stumble through the blackout and into the streets.

Amid the human screams and one inhuman roar, Rob and his friends must traverse a landscape that has changed, overtaken by something otherworldly, terrifying, monstrous…

Paramount Pictures Presents A Bad Robot Production “Cloverfield” starring Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T. J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel and Odette Yustman. The film is directed by Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard. The producers are J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk.

Click on the video thumbnails below to watch IESB's on set interviews with cast and crew plus get a look behind the scenes of CLOVERFIELD! And in case you missed any of them, we've got all the tv spots as well to share!

Plus, can't wait to see Cloverfield? Join a bunch of Cloverfield fans and enter to win a seat at the early IESB Flm Geekz screening in the Sacramento/Davis area! Check out the flyer below the clips for info on the Cloverfield PUB NIGHT being held on Wednesday January 16th! Attend for your chance see Cloverfield early on 1-17-08! Click here for more details!"

The movie, produced by fanboy icon J.J. Abrams (creator of “Lost" and “Alias"), has been generating a steady stream of buzz since its no-title trailer debuted last summer. The hype has been driven by an ingenious, relentless viral campaign (see related story), and at this point bloggers and sci-fi fans couldn't be more excited if their girlfriends greeted them at the door in Princess Leia's gold bikini from “Return of the Jedi."

Now, let's just hope “Cloverfield" isn't a horrible disappointment. If even one geek takes his life with his replica phaser, it will be too many.

But how could it possibly disappoint, you ask? Abrams is one of the few guys in Hollywood who can be relied on to consistently produce compelling entertainment.

But the red flags are there. So let's step back from the hype, pour ourselves a frosty glass of Haterade and look at seven reasons to be skeptical about “Cloverfield." As playwright Wilson Mizner said, “I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education." (continue article)