According to Deadline, filmmaker Babak Anvari has been hired to direct a new Cloverfield film. Under the Shadow, a horror movie in the Persian language is the one that brought Anvari the most fame. Both the Netflix crime thriller I Came By and the high-concept thriller Wounds were directed by him. The only thing we know for sure about the tone of the forthcoming Cloverfield film is that it will be scary because of Anvari’s background in horror. As was to be expected, J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot has been cagey regarding the project’s future. It’s also not clear if the upcoming film will be a sequel, a prequel, or just a new chapter in the Cloverfield franchise.
In addition, this is the first time Paramount has confirmed the production of a new Cloverfield film from the get-go; previous sequels were all created under various titles and only revealed to be part of the Cloverfield world when their trailers were released. Since its inception, the Cloverfield film series has had enormous unrealized potential. Released in 2008, the film was ahead of its time in terms of using innovative marketing strategies (and the internet) to generate buzz. In January 2008, when Matt Reeves’ original Cloverfield film was released, it smashed box office projections with a $40 million debut. After everything was said and done, it made nearly $170,000,000 at the box office throughout the world on a reported budget of $25,000,000. The plot of Cloverfield, ostensibly a found video film, centred on a group of twentysomethings who were caught in the thick of a kaiju attack on New York City. Ten Cloverfield Lane, directed by Dan Trachtenberg in 2016, has only a shaky relationship with the original.
It took place almost exclusively in a bunker and served mostly as a chamber piece about three people who are imprisoned together when the world outside becomes untenable. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr., and a very good John Goodman all had roles in the movie. It reportedly cost $15 million but grossed $110 million throughout the world.
The Cloverfield Paradox, the third film in the franchise, was the first of the films in the franchise to be released exclusively online. Because it was (by a long shot) the worst of the lot, I suppose. The film was originally titled God Particle and was directed by Julius Onah with an all-star cast including Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O’Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, and Zhang Ziyi.
The fact that it’s connected to the Cloverfield series was made public only hours before its Netflix debut. Speculation at the time suggested that Paramount had abandoned the project and handed it off to a streaming service. In addition, there were reports at the time that Overlord, Julius Avery’s World War II-set zombie thriller, might be remade as part of the Cloverfield franchise. In addition to Abrams, the new film also has Hannah Minghella and Jon Cohen as producers. Reeves, Drew Goddard, and Bryan Burk will serve as executive producers on the picture.