Giant Monsters Invade New York In J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield

Thanks Todd for posting this news! I got to admit that the trailer also peaked my interest. "Cloverfield" is the codename for this unnamed J.J. Abrams Project and is being referred to online either by its release date "01.18.08" or simply as "untitled J.J. Abrams Project". "Felicity" series director Matt Reeves is the director. This movie seems like a cross between "Blair Witch Project" and "The Host". There's all sorts of wild rumors abound as to what the movie could be...a Godzilla remake, a H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu story, a "Lost" movie, a "Voltron" movie, an "end of the world" movie. I too was hoping it would be a new Godzilla/Gamera movie but if it's another similar style giant monster movie that would be awesome.

Check out www.theparasitemovie.com and http://www.ethanhaaswaswrong.com/ aswell as www.ethanhaaswasright.com

I'm totally unfamiliar with lost and all things JJ Abrams, but I'm led to believe that the man is fond of Lovecraft and has nudged the rumor mill with mentions of his "Call of Cthulu" short stories in emails. Sounds appropriate, seeing that the short story is apparently a collection of first hand accounts by characters whose stories revolve around the myth of a monster named Cthulu but who never actually encounter it themselves.

This might be the first giant monster movie in which we never actually see the monster.

I believe Abrams has stated that the Ethan Haas sites have nothing to do with the Cloverfield project.

before i saw this i thought that it would be the american remake of the host, but now i'm not so sure. either way, i'm not a big fan of the first person perspective, sure it looks good on the trailer but watching an entire movie like that it's always tiresome. the only similar experience i had was the blair witch project and that was no fun at all.

Just so you know that the trailer was the first thing they shot so we don't know if the entire film will be like that or not.
Over at AICN there is a massive disgussion going on over what it all means. JJ said that the ethanhaaswasright.com has nothing to do with him but there are clues in the teaser that point other made up websites, one of them being www.slusho.jp. According to that site this is indeed a giant monster movie about creatures coming from the ocean (read the History segment of the slusho site).
There is alot of guessing going on about what this is, Voltron, Godzilla or Cuthulu. Me I would love to see a new Godzilla film or a Cuthulu inspired story but I doupt this is either.

I know it's an ever more crowded field and you have to do things to be heard and get interest going but the danger of all these internet hype marketing plans is you better have something at the end to justify all the build up, remember SNAKES ON A PLANE. Build up expectation to high and have a mediocre product and it will go right down the toilet as a bigger dissapointment than it would have otherwise.

just make a damn good movie and when it's ready to come out show me what a good movie it is and I'll go.

SIGNAL doesn't have a "marketing" gimick, no "What is the SIGNAL" "What does it mean" websites. The movie was made, played some festivals, got good reviews and had a good trailer. It looks good and I want to see it.

CLOVERFIELD has a good teaser. I hope it turns out to be a good movie and if it turns out the monster is the STAYPUFFED MARSHMALLOW MAN back to kick ass that would be awesome.

this looks interesting and promising but on the other hand, the J.J. Abrams' formula is very familiar to those who follow LOST: tickle the curiosity of the audience and back this up with some unknown websites.
anyways, I'm looking forward to it :)

and I don't believe this is something to do with Cthulu because Guillermo del Toro is holding the rights of it and "At the Mountains of Madness" is already on its way to hit the silver screen.

HP Lovecraft rights are more or less public domain so it's up for grabs for everyone. Why do you think there are so many low budget HP Lovecraft films?
If Del Toro held the rights to Cuthulu he would have to own the rights to all of his stories which mention Cuthulu. And there are a shitload of those. Plus Mountains of Madness is nowhere near the silver screen, the script has been written and that's it. Hellboy 2 will have to do some serious business to get people to fund that massive story. And to be fair, while it's very juicy to imagine a Lovecraft flick from Del Toro, the general public has no idea who Lovecraft is and it's a pretty hard story to sell to movie execs since it's period, nothing really happens in it after the opening attack, just a couple of guys walking really describing architecture. Not really cinematic for Joe Six Pack.

First Person? This shaking camera thingie feels NOTHING like how I (we) perceive the world around me. I can bounce around all I want, but my view just doesn't shake as much as a result. I think we have some built in motion stabilizer or something.

Thus, it looks incredibly lame and fake to me.

if it was Cthulhu, why would they not advertise it as a Cthulhu film? In todays world Cthulhu = $$$$$...well sorta.

my favorite idea so far.....shiva the destroyer or some other Hindu super gods...but not Ganesh, Ganesh is good!

You're right lilboner, there is a great shortage of Hindu supergod movies. Even the Buddhist demon fetishists got their wishes fulfilled with the third fight in "Gantz", so I think Hinduism is long overdue. And as you point out they have quite the pantheon for it!

This has nothing to do with Lovecraft.Yeah it has elements of a kaiju or an end of days film.But this is closer to a remake of The Stuff than anything thing else.No Cthulhu in this thats just wishful thinking.

Nobody out there knows what Cuthulu is aside from us nerds and geeks.

all the English majors know who Cthulu is too, not just geeks.
i doubt J.J. would want this much restriction on his material when developing a new concept - i doubt Cthulu is the subject of this next film.
an end of days genre film, yes.

some people claim that this is a fake trailer and it's just a part of a brilliant marketing campaign for LOST Season 4. wow...