Cloverfield - J.J. Abrams Project

[Barty]

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/

New trailer is up.

They certainly know how to market this film.

[Watashi]

Indeed.

This and The Dark Knight have had fantastic marketing campaigns.

[KK2.0]

it's a War of The Worlds type of flick but told with a Blair Witch/Cannibal Holocaust "they found this footage" narrative, nothing new...


[

Show Spoiler

I'm so there opening day

]

[Sycophant]

I'm really hoping this is good. I'm really, really hoping this is good.

'Cause if it sucks, it's going to suck hard.

The trailer before Beowulf got me all kinds of excited, though.

[Henry Gale]

I'm actually surprised that I am more excited after this trailer than I was with the title-less Transformers one. But it's a combination of the footage there being even more impressive than before and it only being a couple of months away now.

I can't believe this is only being made for $30 million, some of the shots there look just as good, if not better, than of the devastated NYC shots in something with a huge budget like I Am Legend.

[MadMan]

Damn that looks awesome and kind of freaky.

[Raiders]

Whoa. That's one hell of a trailer. I'm looking forward to the film, though I have suspicions that the handheld style may grow tiresome.

[megladon8]

Anyone else have sneaking suspicions that this will just end up being a Godzilla movie?

[Rowland]

Anyone else have sneaking suspicions that this will just end up being a Godzilla movie?

Literally Godzilla, or a Godzilla-esque monster movie? If it's the latter, awesome. If it's the former... *shrug* Awesome.

[megladon8]

Literally Godzilla, or a Godzilla-esque monster movie? If it's the latter, awesome. If it's the former... *shrug* Awesome.

I mean literally Godzilla.

Though there's also a significant amount of speculation that the monster will never be shown. I can't seem to find it anywhere, but apparently it has been described as "War of the Worlds meets The Blair Witch Project"...maybe they're hinting that you never see anything?

In that new trailer there's a very quick instant where you see the back of the monster - in the middle of the segment where the infantry and tanks are shooting like mad up into the air.

Maybe shots like that are all we'll get.


Also, has anyone heard anything more to the rumor - or perhaps it was just speculation by MatchCutters on the old forum - that this could be a Cthulhu movie, or at least based on a Lovecraft monster? That would rock...though I never really saw the Lovecraft monsters as daikaiju type beings, destroying cities.

[Rowland]

Also, has anyone heard anything more to the rumor - or perhaps it was just speculation by MatchCutters on the old forum - that this could be a Cthulhu movie, or at least based on a Lovecraft monster? That would rock...though I never really saw the Lovecraft monsters as daikaiju type beings, destroying cities.

It's a rather terrible idea, for the very reason you state, which is that Lovecraft monsters destroying a city Godzilla-style is just a silly misappropriation of Lovecraft mythology.

Anyway, the rumor has been officially denied.

[Winston*]

I see equal potential for entertainment and annoyance.

[Mysterious Dude]

Attack of the giant chipmunks?

[lovejuice]

I see equal potential for entertainment and annoyance.

that's what i'm thinking.

[megladon8]

Attack of the giant chipmunks?

I thought that was military guys killing her? Probably wearing HAZMAT suits or something.


EDIT: And upon watching it a third time, I think it'll end up just bing a gimmicky monster movie, with annoyingly stupid pretty-people characters.

[Kurosawa Fan]

There's a moment in the trailer when the military is on the street firing their guns at it where my wife and I think it looks like a tentacle rips through the top of a building. It's really quick, only a few frames, and if I knew how to post it I'd do it.

I'm in agreement that it'll probably go either way, with very little middle ground. I'm leaning toward it sucking.

[Spinal]

Pass.

[megladon8]

There's a moment in the trailer when the military is on the street firing their guns at it where my wife and I think it looks like a tentacle rips through the top of a building. It's really quick, only a few frames, and if I knew how to post it I'd do it.

I'm in agreement that it'll probably go either way, with very little middle ground. I'm leaning toward it sucking.

Yeh, that's the part I was talking about...you think it looks like a tentacle? I thought it was more like an arm or something.

I'm going to be seriously pissed if the monster is never shown. I can understand saving it for later in the film, but if it never appears, that'll be pretty disappointing.

[Rowland]

I'm more interested in how convincingly it sells this "verite" ground-level perspective of the attack. I've already seen plenty of monsters.

[megladon8]

I'm more interested in how convincingly it sells this "verite" ground-level perspective of the attack. I've already seen plenty of monsters.

I can't ever imagine a point in my life where something like this or "I've seen enough monsters" will come out of my mouth.

There are never enough monsters

[Spinal]

I'm more interested in how convincingly it sells this "verite" ground-level perspective of the attack. I've already seen plenty of monsters.

And 'splosions.

I agree that this is what will make or break the film. I have little confidence that they will be able to sustain the intensity suggested by the trailer for the length of the film. The dialogue and acting look pretty weak. The creative team does not inspire confidence in me. It's a January release. I think they're relying on the public's fascination with 'splosions, shaky Youtube camerawork and the destruction of American landmarks. Smells like a fraud to me.

[megladon8]

This kind of reminds me of an idea I once had.

I would love to create a huge, incredibly deceptive marketing campaign, purposely making the film seem like something completely different from what it was.

Sort of like those joke trailers, like the one where they make The Shining look like some coming-of-age, father-son comedy/drama.

I'd love to make trailers for a family film and have it be some brutally violent crime drama ala Goodfellas, or vice versa.

[Ezee E]

Psh. I think it looks great.

[Mysterious Dude]

I dislike the idea of making a monster movie "realistic". I had the same problem with War of the Worlds. It made me actually feel bad for the victims of an alien invasion, and I don't understand the point of that.

[MadMan]

Yeh, that's the part I was talking about...you think it looks like a tentacle? I thought it was more like an arm or something.

I'm going to be seriously pissed if the monster is never shown. I can understand saving it for later in the film, but if it never appears, that'll be pretty disappointing.

I can't imagine you liking the films of Jacques Tourneur then meg, because he rarely (if ever) showed the monster or the creature. Sometimes less is more. I mean come on The Blair Witch Project's ending is incredibly scary and disturbing because we don't see any sort of witch, creature or monster. I'll take never seeing the monster and conjoring up what it looks like in my head over seeing a bad CGI creature that looks like the shitty American Godzilla from the 1998 Godzilla flick that was utterly terrible.