The Hollywood Reporter is among the sites providing details on CLOVERFIELD, a secretive Paramount monster-movie project whose teaser trailer is currently playing on screens nationwide with the studio’s TRANSFORMERS. Produced by LOST’s J.J. Abrams (though his Bad Robot company) and Bryan Burk, with Matt Reeves (co-creator of Abrams’ series FELICITY) directing from a script by frequent collaborator Drew Goddard, it’s a vérité-style monster movie in which a creature attack on New York City is presented from the point of view of a group of citizens trying to survive the destruction.
The teaser plays as handheld footage from a going-away party in a Manhattan bar—before a colossal roar is heard outside and the guests flee to the streets, where chaos reins. The title itself isn’t shown, but a January 18, 2008 release date is revealed.
No scripts were sent out to agents during the CLOVERFIELD casting process, which resulted in a mostly unknown ensemble headed by Michael (THE BLACK DONNELLYS) Stahl-David, Odet Jasmin, Mike (TEXAS CHAINSAW remake) Vogel and Lizzy Caplan. Camcordered versions of the trailer turned up on YouTube a day or so ago, but were quickly taken down on Paramount’s orders. According to the Reporter, CLOVERFIELD has been filming under a very low profile in New York City since mid-June on a $30-million budget; however, IGN reports that the movie is now lensing in LA under the cover title SLUSHO (an obscure reference from Abrams’ ALIAS series). That site also points the way to a teaser website here that currently consists only of the image seen above. We’ll let you know any more CLOVERFIELD details we can dig up.
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