Top Secret US Kaiju Movie Gets Ready to Take US by Storm
A bleak truth is that American cinema hasn't been kind to the kaiju genre. Aside from Peter Jackson's King Kong, there hasn't been a giant monster film widely released in the United States since Godzilla 2000. Hopefully, J.J Abrams is going to change all that.
My now, most readers have seen Transformers, but what stick in many's mind isn't the main feature--it's a brief trailer from Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot that runs shortly before the film begins. Viewed through the lenses of camera phones, we see a group of friends throwing a going away party. Things grind to a sudden halt when the building shakes and the party runs up to the roof, where they see a gigantic fireball raining debris down on New York City, and hear a bellowing roar. Cut then to the street, as people are fleeing and someone is heard to say Yes, I saw it. It's Huge! Then more people fleeing and confusion, when suddenly a large object flies in and impacts hard into the street. It's the head of the Statue of Liberty, and people can be heard screaming Oh my God!. Cut to black, and we then are shown the credit From J.J. Abrams and a release date of 1/18/08.
Nothing else is officially known, except that this is a very top secret project made under the codename Cloverfield, and that is being produced by J.J Abrams. It was greenlighted by Paramount back in February, the same time he signed on to direct the next Star Trek film. All Abrams has publically revealed is that it involves a large monster, and it will shot in the handheld camera style of Blair Witch, to give the film a more realistic air. There is a website
www.1-18-08.com, which only show two timestamped pictures. One of some partygoers enjoying some drinks, and another that could possibly reveal a clue about the monster (for right now, know only as The Parasite. The second picture shows the faces of two frightened women--but between their faces there seems to be a glimpse of a reptilian creature. An interesting detail that may confirm this is that the song The Joker and the Thief, from the band Wolfmother, is playing in the background at the party. The song contains the lyric standing in a field of clover, and the cd cover is said to show a large lizard.
Although Paramount denies it, the film is believed to be lensing now in New York, under the direction of Matt Reeves. The script is being written by Drew Goddard, and the cast is rumored to be Mike Vogel, Lizzie Caplan, Odette Yustman, and Michael Stahl-David. Industrial Light and Magic is said to be handling the special effects duties, and Cloverfield will have a budget of $30 million.
By the time this is released, it will have been almost a decade since Godzilla, where a high profile filmmaker decided to make a movie about a giant monster attacking NY. Hopefully Abrams can succeed where Emmerich failed. Given Abrams style of gritty realism, he just might accomplish that and possibly more.