A Cloverfield sequel is in the works, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter. The 2008 science fiction-horror hybrid, produced by J. J. Abrams, was not just a massive box office success, it inspired a rush of “found footage” imitators and was among the first films to capitalize on an intentionally elliptical marketing campaign and “viral” tie-ins.
The new film, however, will not employ the “found footage” technique, according to THR‘s report. Joe Barton will write the script and no director is yet attached. Abrams will be producing.
Barton’s previous work includes the BBC detective series Girl/Haji and the sci fi film Invasion starring Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer, currently in post-production. He also has the Netflix series Half Bad (based on Sally Green‘s book series) in development and was just announced as the new showrunner for the forthcoming “set-in-Year-One” Batman series for HBO Max.
Cloverfield, directed by Matt Reeves, written by Drew Goddard, and starring Lizzy Caplan, T.J. Miller, Odette Yustman, Michael-Stahl David, and a rampaging space monster with a predilection for bashing into Manhattan landmarks, marked a kind of Peak J.J. Abrams-ness. Its debut in pop consciousness came as an untitled trailer ahead of summer 2007’s Transformers. “What the heck was that crazy camcorder movie?” was as much a topic of post-screening conversation as Sam Witwicky returning Optimus Prime’s AllSpark.
Abrams and his company Bad Robot has kept the Cloverfield branding alive with two additional films, 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox, neither of which were originally conceived of or shot as part of the shared universe. While the former, which starred Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman in 2016, was a critical and financial success, the latter was a notorious dud that got dumped to Netflix in 2018, and released as a Hail Mary pass after the Super Bowl.
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