1-18-08 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Almost every day I receive an email from another online movie writer pointing me toward a "hot" story they've written on a "hot" topic. Some of these I decide are worthy of a post, some are not. This evening Devin from CHUD was the latest name to pop into my inbox, and he's got some tasty Halloween treats that I personally think you might want to check out. First off, the first full-length Cloverfield (or 1-18-08, or Untitled J.J. Abrams Mind-F*ck) is said to be arriving on November 16, with a confirmed title, but Devin claims to have seen the trailer (or an earlier version of it) and he's published a full report with all kinds of details. Most notably, he says the trailer ends with the title Cloverfield. Granted, knowing Abrams and his crew, they may not stick a title in until the very last minute. Additionally, even if this is the real title, I wouldn't put it past Abrams to change it once all these reports start cropping up online.

Moving on ... based on the description, the trailer seems pretty cool. Lots of what we've seen before; people running, screaming, military folks, rockets, helicopters, the Statue of Liberty's head on the ground somewhere -- but, finally, it seems we get a tiny glimpse of this monster (or shall I say, group of monsters) that are attacking New York City. According to Devin "...there's footage of army guys running and shadows on a wall. Shadows of a screaming woman being attacked by a small monster (possibly two - either she's being pulled away from the monster by someone behind her or there's another monster behind her). It's confirmed: the movie has a big beast and small ones. Like the American Godzilla." He also adds that we briefly see another, larger monster pass between two buildings, but he couldn't make out the details. So it looks like Abrams and Co. will keep their monsters well hidden until closer to release.

Oh, and if it ends up the flick is called Cloverfield, well, that'd be totally lame. I vote for Super Kick-Ass Monster Movie! But that's me.

It's been awhile, but another mysterious photo has popped up over at 1-18-08.com (aka The Unofficial Official Website for "Cloverfield" -- aka That Mysterious J.J. Abrams Project). I'll admit that I haven't been following the viral marketing for this film since -- I dunno -- July, so I'm not completely up to date on all the different websites beside this one that may or may not have something to do with the movie. But in case you're still following the clues, if you flip the above image over (on their site, not ours), you'll see the recipe for a Japanese dish, in Japanese. You can find the translation over on the Unfiction message boards, as well as more info on the Cloverfield Clues blog.

As far as I know, an official title still hasn't been released, and we're all still assuming the film will be released on January 18, 2008. From the details that have emerged, we know the film will follow a group of kids from New York City who attempt to survive an attack from an unknown monster(s). Oh, and the entire film will most likely be told via shaky handheld cameras, a la The Blair Witch Project. Matt Reeves is directing off a script from Drew Goddard, while folks like Lizzy Caplan, Mike Vogel (who's rumored to be up for the role of Captain Kirk in Abrams' Star Trek XI) and Jessica Lucas star. Not much else to go on, but whatever it is that chef is holding up -- well, it looks disgusting.

I'm sure you've been waiting for another morsel about the 1-18-08 -aka- Cloverfield flick. Bit by teeny little bit, news has been coming out about this film, which has to speed up at some point if it wants to make its '08 release date. 1-18-08news.com has posted the next little piece -- a heads up that the official website has been updated. It now includes a roar. Yes, that's it -- a roar. If you go to the website, sit there and wait for a while you'll hear it -- although to me it sounds like a roar that turns into some sort of guitar screech. Obviously this is a little bone for the uber-anxious, since not everyone will just keep the website open on their browser long enough to hear the jump-inducer. I'm wondering if it would've been better to do one of those e-mail forwards that tells you to stare at some picture long enough ... it would be a great way to introduce the monster!

Beyond that, there's nothing really new to report. Personally, I'm really itching to see how Drew Goddard does on his first feature film script. He got his start on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and wrote some of the best of the latter episodes, like Conversations with Dead People. (He's also often referred to as the hot Buffy writer, which is understandable, since the guy is a looker.) Since then he's written for Angel as well as J.J. Abrams' two shows, Alias and Lost -- so he's got some experience with mysterious and other-worldly fare. What's surprising is the other Abrams crew on the job as director -- Felicity exec producer/writer/director Matt Reeves, whose last feature was the David Schwimmer stinker The Pallbearer. Stay tuned for the next crumb ... sure to be thrown at some point!

This time with more blur! The problem with this mysterious Cloverfield movie is that after the hype machine blew through for a period of about a week and a half, things have calmed down and no one seems to care much anymore about figuring out what the hell J.J. Abrams has up his sleeve. Folks like to play games for a little while, but there comes a time when they tire of the mind-fu**ing and simply want to know the deal. While the film's official website, 1-18-08.com, was fascinating and peculiar at first, it's slowly become rather busy and uninteresting. Oh wow, another photo to toss around with your mouse for twenty minutes! What will they think of next? It's cool; feel free to call bullsh*t on me -- after all, I am single-handedly helping to push the marketing machine forward by continuing to write about the film and its online trickery. But that's my job. And if I didn't vent from time to time, then how the hell would I fill up an entire post?

By now I'm sure you've guessed that another photo has popped over at the Cloverfield site. This one is pretty difficult to make out, but it looks like people are running in the streets and some dude in a military outfit is there to make sure folks flee to the appropriate areas. I'm not sure who's actually taking these pictures, but hopefully they'll remember to use their flash for the next one. Like the other three photos on the site, you at home have the option to move it around the page and swap it out for one of the older images. I'm not sure what the whole "photo movement" has to do with anything, except that it gives people a reason to stay on the site longer and pretend to be figuring out a clue that no one else has solved yet. As I said before, the site is becoming rather busy with all these photos, and so I imagine they'll introduce a new gimmick soon (possibly at ComicCon or shortly thereafter). Other than that, we're told this will be some sort of monster movie (Muppets Take Manhattan 2?), and it shall arrive in theaters on January 18, 2008.

This week on Trailer Park, darkness falls across the land.

1-18-08
The turning point in this trailer is when a party is plunged into darkness. This preview, which has been playing with Tranformers, is one of the coolest trailers I've seen in... well, possibly ever. A farewell party in New York City is interrupted by a power failure and a massive explosion several miles away. The roar of something huge is heard in the distance, and a large piece of shrapnel turns out to be the Statue of Liberty's head. Over on IMDB this is still being called the Untitled J.J. Abrams Project. Speculation is running wild on this one. Just check out all the comments on Erik's posting about the film's teaser website. I for one am dying to see what this is all about.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
As Jette recently mentioned here, this teen horror flick has dropped off the summer release schedule entirely, been picked up by a new distributor and reassigned an early 2008 release date. In this fairly dark tale of teen lust and angst, a former ugly duckling has fallen in with the popular crowd. Every boy in her class has lusted after her, and during a weekend excursion to a remote ranch, several highly hormonal young men hope to get to know Mandy a whole lot better. Things turn ugly, though, and people start dying. The trailer resorts to lots of quick cuts, preventing the viewer from seeing who is getting offed, but there's a manic energy here that I find intriguing. Check it out:

I trust all of you out there had a wonderful Fourth of July; one that included catching at least one showing of Transformers, as well as a preview for that secret J.J. Abrams-produced Blair Monster Project Movie. I've written a couple posts about this mysterious project before ever having seen the much talked-about trailer, but that's now changed. I caught a screening of Transformers with a group of peeps for my friend's 30th birthday on Tuesday (yes, he wanted to see Transformers for his 30th, and I fully supported him in that decision). I thought the trailer (which followed a group of partygoers onto the streets of Manhattan -- via handheld camera -- as a bunch of explosions slowly begin to cripple the city) was pretty damn rad. And I'm impressed that more information about the film hasn't leaked online ... yet. Kudos to Abrams, his team and Paramount for keeping a tight lid on this thing -- the marketing on it thus far has been pretty damn entertaining.

And it continues today with a brand new teaser website for the film. 1-18-08.com will apparently be the flick's new home, and the domain was registered by Paramount wayyy back in March before anyone knew a thing about "Cloverfield" (or whatever it's called). Right now all that's up there is a photo of two awestruck faces and a time stamp in the lower right-hand corner that reads 01/18/2008 12:36A. I believe the two faces in the pic belong to females, and their mouths are open as if to say, "What the hell is happening right now" or "Did a giant robot really just take a piss on John Turturro?" I have a feeling they'll try to keep this one a secret for as long as they can, although there's a good chance we'll see some sort of promotion for it later this month at San Diego ComicCon. In the meantime, we do know that Abrams is producing, Drew Goddard wrote the script and, from what we hear, Matt Reeves is directing. Is it another Godzilla movie? Does it have something to do with Lost? Or, could it be entirely new ... and we're just conditioned to immediately think everything is either a remake or sequel?