1-18-08 Project Cloverfield - Warning! Spoilers

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.

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)

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!

The release of a Cloverfield DVD is rumored to be around April 15th or 22nd. Paramount's none to happy about the leaked rumor that they are rushing an unfinished Blu-ray to the market for Cloverfield. But what about the standard Cloverfield DVD?

Cinema Blend has gotten a hold of what may be the DVD packaging (standard definition) of the new Cloverfield DVD. This subtle DVD boldly doesn't use the iconic Statue of Liberty poster from the movie which might suggest this could be the packaging of a special edition or 2-disc set.

The market for the Blu-ray/HD-DVD is still a small percentage of the sales which means those who are still buying standard DVD's need a copy. I've heard rumblings of a cool 2 Disc DVD (standard format) being available when Cloverfield hits the market. The idea is to give the viewer all the viral marketing along with some new storylines to fill in a few questions left over.

All the viral works and clips like the Chuai Station and Jamie and Teddy (yes, I've been informed it is part of the Cloverfield world) will be available along with some commentary and behind the scenes stuff. All in all it sounds like the ultimate fans dream disc. Let's just hope it sees the light of day.

You'll see Jamie passed out on the couch in this outfit in the Cloverfield movie. Something about being over Teddy. It's hard to concentrate with her cleavage in the camera.

The 10th video in the Jamie and Teddy collection features a visibly angry Jamie and her silent message to Teddy.

Jamie and Teddy video #8 where Jamie eats some of the Slusho sea nectar. Yum!

A small update in the Jamie and Teddy world. The 6th video sees Jamie calling a phone number for Teddy's work at Tagruato.

Jamie and Teddy video #5 deals with the package Jamie was supposed to receive on Dec. 9th. The UPS man delivers the package which Jamie opens. Included in the items is a "Slusho" hat.

• Cloverfield Wrap Party Gifts >
  

Jamie and Teddy has updated their 4th video. This latest video has Jamie doing a little striptease for her boy, Teddy, on camera.

• Jamie And Teddy Video 3 >
• Jamie And Teddy Video 2 >
• Jamie And Teddy Video 1 >
  

The time is almost here for the new Cloverfield/1-18-08 trailer. If the rumors are correct, we should see the new trailer within a week. There is great speculation that the trailer will be in front of the highly anticipated Beowulf which opens wide Friday, November 16th.

Even though it's a week away, screenings will occur over the next week and I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any early trailer sightings. As for Beowulf, the movie is tracking extremely high and has had a huge buzz around it since images were released showing Angelina Jolie doing her CG modeling.

Having Cloverfield show their new trailer in front of the Beowulf movie should result in a huge spike in Cloverfield/1-18-08 buzz. Keeping that in mind, if the movie decides to live up to its viral expectations, we can only hope they might use this time to leap board a new viral campaign.

If Cloverfield ends up opening with a viral campaign consisting of a few lame MySpace accounts and a "Jamie Loves Teddy" site, I'm gonna be real mad. However, I anticipate some interesting updates to the Tagruato site as well as some mysterious videos popping up closer to the opening date.

The only other J.J. Abrams news going on is his casting for the upcoming Star Trek movie, which should start shooting later this week. This week we see Capt. Christopher Pike getting a face and Spock's Mom cast.

Bruce Greenwood, a prolific working actor who has appeared in "I, Robot," "The Core," and HBO's offbeat drama "John from Cincinnati," will be sitting in the captain's chair in the 2008 "Star Trek" movie directed by J.J. Abrams, which began production Wednesday.

Also, add Winona Ryder to the cast list as Spock's Mother. However, Variety says “Paramount Pictures and director JJ Abrams have set Ryder to play the Vulcan mother of a young Spock.”

Considering Spock's Mother was supposed to be human, I'm not sure if that's a misprint or a plot twist.

• Captain Pike cast in new Star Trek >
• Winona Ryder joins Star Trek >
• STAR TREK XI MISCASTING JUST ABOUT COMPLETE >
  

What could possibly be more important than news on the upcoming J.J. Abrams flick, Cloverfield /1-18-08?

How about a sequel to one of the greatest surf movies of all time. Yes, they're going to make Point Break 2! We can finally know the fate of Johnny Utah and Bodhi.

Oh, I can die happy now...

While everything else is downhill from there, I guess I'll just have to see what else is going on. Actuall, only a tiny amount of Cloverfield -1-18-08 related news brewing today. Most of J.J.'s news is centered around the Star Trek movie he's making while the Cloverfield/1-18-08 gets a news update once every 2 weeks.

As you may know, the big news this week is the pre-screen of the new Cloverfield/1-18-08 trailer by CHUD. While only time will tell its validity the real fact that only 11 weeks remain until the movie actually hits.

The Bad Robot homepage got a minor update this past week. This is the production unit of J.J. Abrams and it features only a bad robot graphic. The only difference is the picture size. It's about 1/3 the size it used to be and was for years. A small and insignificant update but the fact they are glossing up their homepage (which is linking via the official Apple trailer) might mean some updates coming soon.

Which leads me to this great find by Cloverfield News about one of the production houses, The Third Floor, who is working on the Cloverfield/1-18-08 movie. As a huge fan of cinema and future producer I find the work that The Third Floor does highly interesting and extremely valuable.

The Third Floor does pre-viz, or pre-visulization. Think of it as electronic storyboards where directors can have quick models of their movies created to see how they will look finalized. Very important when you're working with CG monsters and sets. Their work also includes texturing and 3-D tracking.

They have a great sample reel of their movies clips which demonstrates their work. This group is huge and has done animatics for George Lucas on Star Wars III as well as a range of movies from the Narnia series to Cloverfield.

• Bad Robot Homepage>
• Surf's Up! Point Break 2>
• The Third Floor Inc., Previsualization for Cloverfield/1-18-08>
  

• National Treasure: Book of Secrets has launched a new trailer (here). The original cast and crew including Nicolas Cage return. And how can they top stealing the Declaration of Independence? By kidnapping the President, of course.
• Indiana Jones 4 has wrapped and gotten a nice, new website (here) complete with the Indian Jones theme music.
  
• The X-files are coming back to the big screen. Word is Chris Carter and gang will reunite for a brand new motion picture (here)
• Unlike Cloverfield, the new Dark Knight flick has a healthy viral campaign. Check out the new developments including a new movie still of Heath Ledger as The Joker (more)
  

The time may be near for 1-18-08/Cloverfield to be titled and a full-length trailer released. A few major websites like /Film and Coming Soon seem to think the upcoming Beowulf movie would be a perfect time to launch the 1-18-08/Cloverfield trailer.

Sounds good to me! If you have visited this site before than you'll know I have shared that opinion, too. (See 1-18-08/Cloverfield Trailer Speculation) Plus, it's a great opportunity to post that picture of the CG-Angelina Jolie.

Also of note is the upcoming Wachowski Brothers version of Speed Racer is being touted as a technological marvel for its full-blown, full-screen camera style. A new and expensive camera was used for the Speed Racer adaptation which created the full-screen effect. That trailer should be out at Christmas time.

• Beowulf Official Site>
• New 1-18-08/Cloverfield Trailer and Title, Christmas Speed Racer Trailer>
  

A Bold Futura website is up and running due to someones great effort. For a few weeks the site for Bold Futura has been only a welcome/coming soon page and it was hard to tell if it was someone parking a site to get in on the action or a legit site associated with the Cloverfield/1-18-08 movie.

Well, it's still hard to tell but the Bold Futura site is online and has multiple pages to search through now. The Bold Futura site even references the Tagruato Corp. site, which is the parent company but does not offer any new information. However, the official Tagruato Corp. site does not link to this new Bold Futura site so until it does it looks like it might be someone having fun.

• Tagruato Corp>
• Bold Futura>
  

Beowulf is coming to theaters on November 16th from Paramount Pictures which makes it the best candidate for having the 1-18-08/Cloverfield trailer attached. The key spot for any upcoming movie is the trailer that's attached to the movie print and shown directly in front of the main movie. Studios generally add one of their projects there.

Paramount Pictures has only one holiday movie coming out and it's huge. It's the Robert Zemeckis CG-flick, Beowulf.

Personally, I'm mixed when it comes to doing humans with CG. They're still years away from it being realistic but I really dig Zemeckis. Plus, it' has Angelina Jolie all tricked out. Zemeckis is definitely one of the more underrated directors around and I'm sure he'll handle the timeless story with class.

Beowulf is tracking extremely high right now which should give it a monster opening week when it starts November 16th. To illustrate, take a look at the comparison of how Cloverfield is tracking with its known names (Cloverfield, 1-18-08, Slusho) compared to Beowulf, which has been riding high for much longer than Cloverfield.

That big, green line is the Beowulf tracking which has benefited from a steady source of news and updates. For being dubbed a viral flick, I have to admit that the 1-18-08 movie has been relatively quiet on the Internet.

Here's the graph with I Am Legend added to it. The Will Smith flick benefited from a spike this week with a new trailer (see New I Am Legend Trailer) that a few confused people were associating with Cloverfield earlier.

The lesson learned here might be that I Am Legend was running along with Cloverfield until the new trailer popped out. Hopefully, we can see some news and interest develop with a new trailer or some viral information in the next few weeks.

One blog (see here) has taken a look at the ripple effect for the Cloverfield/1-18-08 marketing department that will occur when or if a movie title is announced. More preciscely, the post looks at the effect a name change will have on the Google search engines. While this is far from being a precise tool to measure a movie's marketing, it does bring up some key issues on the project.

The author seems to think that keeping with the codename 'Cloverfield' will be the best marketing decision. Keep in mind that the author is using his projected Google scenerio as his source of data. While search results are key to any website or movie, with a viral project like this the bulk of the data is being heavily driven by forums, blogs, and movie websites.

The title of the movie won't live or die by how Google Trends sees the movie. Instead, the film will fill seats by what Ain't It Cool News, Slash Film, and unFiction mention. With a timeline now of 3 months until the release, 1-18-08 has garnered enough buzz on so few facts that the first wealth of information that overwhelms the fans and bystanders alike that it will easily create enough of a factor for the Google Trends that will ride the movie into opening week.

As for keeping the term 'Cloverfield' as the movies title I personally couldn't disagree more with the Marketing author about keeping that term. If your choices are using 'Cloverfield' or the release date 1-18-08, it makes more sense to use '1-18-08' than 'Cloverfield.' The only real exception is to tie in the 'Cloverfield' term into something relevant to the movie such as the secret, underwater ingredient in Slusho is called a 'Cloverfield' because of its color. Even that is too much of a stretch for my liking. At this time I can't see how the term could fit in.

I've liked '1-18-08' as the title for awhile now for multiple reasons. Like the arguement for 'Cloverfield' the date '1-18-08' is already established. The movie is supposed to take place that night which connects the title and movie. Plus, Paramount's homepage now refers to the movie as '1-18-08.'

Two new buttons have been added to the Slusho homepage. The first one advertises 'Distribution Opportunities' and encourages you to join the Slusho family as they are getting ready to expand to the West.

It goes on to say that as soon as Slusho gets the FDA and other paperwork approved, representatives and scientists will be sent out to teach you how to operate and mix Slusho correctly.

Two notes of interest are that the Slusho website references the parent company, Tagruato, for the first time. Second, they refer to Slusho's secret ingredient by name as 'Seabed's Nectar.'

Here is the text from the 'distribution page':

Join the Slusho! Team soon!!! Distribution Opportunities available by contacting us through our parent, TAGRUATO! Extensive research reveals that our incredibly tasty flavor mixtures would be loved throughout the West! Become a pioneer, spread Noriko's dream and purchase a Slusho! machine for your store today! We will send representatives and scientists who will train you on how to operate our machine, and preserve the flavor of our special ingredient, Seabed's Nectar!! And what is more, we will have the special flavor tasties delivered bi-weekly, right to your storefront!!! We are highly optimistic that the FDA and other such organizations will quickly approve our ingredient for consumption in the West. They need only look to the East to see its remarkable health benefits
- it is nutritious and thrifty!

TEL +81-3-5403-6318
18KagashimaD@tagruato.jp