Cloverfield Pictures And A Cast Member Talks

(via 1-18-08 blog) New Cloverfield pictures and a new trailer. Christmas has come early. A few nice pictures accompany BlackBook's interview of Lizzy Caplan, one of the stars of Cloverfield.

Lizzy raised my eyebrows with this comment about speculation on the movie:

"BB: How did J.J. Abrams ensure that the story wasn’t leaked? Did you get to take the script home with you?

LC: They’re actually coming by to pick it up today. We had to swap out every new set of pages with the old pages. They’re bright red, the scripts, and watermarked with our names. So, nobody wanted to be the one to accidentally leak it. They’re pretty hardcore about all of that. I don’t know how they’ve managed to keep it so secretive, though, because people obviously want to know more. And nobody knows anything. The speculation is very inaccurate."

BB: What are some of the more ridiculous speculations?

LC: There’s all this YouTube stuff about analyzing the trailer. People are seeing things that aren’t there and making up stuff that isn’t true. There’s this one still of me and Jessica Lucas, who’s another actress in the film, and people thought there was some crazy lion behind us. But people are wrong.

Interesting. As long as it doesn't turn out to be Voltron I'll be happy.

Lizzy Caplan won over the hearts of outcasts everywhere in 2004’s Mean Girls, when she opened her venomous mouth to explain, “Evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don’t be fooled, because she may seem like your typical selfish, back-stabbing slut faced ho-bag, but in reality, she’s so much more than that.” After the success of that film, the trained pianist went on to play a handful of misfits, quick wits, and eye-rollers in various short-lived TV series.

Now, with the top-secret, J.J. Abrams-produced monster adventure ”Cloverfield” (not the film’s actual name, we’re guessing), Caplan is back to take on all sorts of scary beasts. This time around, however, they aren’t hidden beneath the lip-glossy veneer of high school cheerleaders and square-jawed football sleazes. Below, the rising star gets candid about losing roles, looking bad, and impersonating Jennifer Garner.

• Lizzy Caplan: The Meanest Girl in Hollywood? >
  

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Cloverfield Trailer #2 - High Quality Video

The good news is the boys at unFiction have unearthed a fine, HQ Cloverfield #2 trailer. The bad news is that there have been about 3 others pulled within an hour of being put up. Let's hope this one stays up for awhile.

The cell-phone version that's been circulating around today is comprised of 3 parts. Someone put them together and you'll see that clip on YouTube and some other sites. Because it was cut into 1/3's it lost portions at the transitions.

So, this clip is the full deal with the entire video with much better quality. (perm linky)

[bootleg] Cloverfield Trailer (shown with Beowulf)
Uploaded by theluisdotcom

Copy 2


Copy 3


Mirrors:

• Cloverfield Trailer #1 >
  
• Cloverfield Trailer #2 >
• Cloverfield Trailer #3 >
  

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New Cloverfield Trailer Out

I've had a chance to see the new Cloverfield Trailer that will be in front of the Beowulf showings starting this week. Yes, it's legit. And yes, it's really cool.

The description of the new Cloverfield Trailer is pretty much how CHUD described it a few weeks back. Also, the title of the film is "Cloverfield," as mentioned in the same post. Also, we can start calling them "Cloverfield Monsters" with the 's' since there seems to be more than one.

No doubt copies of the trailer will bombard YouTube and the other online video hosts over the next few days. And no doubt they will be pulled very fast by Paramount Studios legal team. There's really no sense posting a video that won't be up for more than an hour, but I'll keep trying.

For now the only copy I have is a crappy cell-phone version that really is not worth watching. There are too many cuts and clips in the trailer that you have to see a high-quality version to take it all in. If you didn't know what was going on than you wouldn't get much from it.

I'd post that one but I'm on Paramount's shit-list and they told me not to post anymore 'unauthorized' pictures/videos on the movie.

The trailer looks great and will no doubt bring back the buzz to Cloverfield. A nice shot of the Statue of Liberty minus the head is near the end before the title of the movie, "Cloverfield," comes on. The characters of the movie keep their cameras rolling to make sure their message will be heard.

For a detailed description of the trailer (no video yet, sorry) check out: THE CLOVERFIELD TRAILER - SEEN! >

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1-18-08 Competition

January is a very slow time for the cinema. That's why a lot of skeptics are eying Cloverfield to bust out and do big numbers for one of the worst movie months.

Studios must have their Oscar contending flicks in by the end of December, at least in limited release. Also, January is the slowest spending month for consumers.

After the holidays and the start of the tax season, can you really blame them?

If Cloverfield/1-18-08 is good enough to live up to the hype it will have a great chance to make some big numbers. For the most part, there is very little competition in the theaters to detract from Cloverfield/1-18-08.

Other movies that open the same week as Cloverfield/1-18-08 are:

Fanboys

"Star Wars" fans travel to Skywalker Ranch to steal an early copy of "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" for their dying friend. Stars Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel, Kristen Bell, and with cameos by Seth Rogan and William Shatner.

Mixed early reviews and a changing opening date have already given this movie a black eye. It very well could be moved up to the week before to open. However, it is targeting a similar 'geek' crowd as Cloverfield.

Fanboys Trailer

Mad Money

Within the confines of the Federal Reserve, three female janitors conspire to steal a fortune in money that is about to be destroyed. Stars Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes.

A chick-flick that should do no harm to Cloverfield's crowd.

Mad Money Trailer

City of Men [limited]

The official U.S. release is 1-18-08 for City of Men. It's a Brazilian flick that has been released in its homeland already. I'm not sure how foreign films work into the whole Oscar race, but it used to be that all movies had to show by the end of the year in at least one U.S. city. So, this one might get moved around to an earlier showing since it's already made and released elsewhere if that will be a factor.


City of Men Trailer

Also of note, Rambo opens up a week later in the final installment of the Sylvester Stallone action series.

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Jamie and Teddy #4

Jamie and Teddy has updated their 4th video. This latest video has Jamie doing a little striptease for her boy, Teddy, on camera.

If you're just getting into the Cloverfield/1-18-08 news and think that you might have missed out on some killer clues, don't worry. Here are the 3 previous videos and this site so far has offered nothing new about the movie. Just some minor flushing out of a couple of characters.

• Jamie And Teddy Video 3 >
• Jamie And Teddy Video 2 >
• Jamie And Teddy Video 1 >
  

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Cloverfield Trailer #2 A Week Away

The time is almost here for the new Cloverfield/1-18-08 trailer. If the rumors are correct, we should see the new trailer within a week. There is great speculation that the trailer will be in front of the highly anticipated Beowulf which opens wide Friday, November 16th.

Even though it's a week away, screenings will occur over the next week and I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any early trailer sightings. As for Beowulf, the movie is tracking extremely high and has had a huge buzz around it since images were released showing Angelina Jolie doing her CG modeling.

Having Cloverfield show their new trailer in front of the Beowulf movie should result in a huge spike in Cloverfield/1-18-08 buzz. Keeping that in mind, if the movie decides to live up to its viral expectations, we can only hope they might use this time to leap board a new viral campaign.

If Cloverfield ends up opening with a viral campaign consisting of a few lame MySpace accounts and a "Jamie Loves Teddy" site, I'm gonna be real mad. However, I anticipate some interesting updates to the Tagruato site as well as some mysterious videos popping up closer to the opening date.

The only other J.J. Abrams news going on is his casting for the upcoming Star Trek movie, which should start shooting later this week. This week we see Capt. Christopher Pike getting a face and Spock's Mom cast.

Bruce Greenwood, a prolific working actor who has appeared in "I, Robot," "The Core," and HBO's offbeat drama "John from Cincinnati," will be sitting in the captain's chair in the 2008 "Star Trek" movie directed by J.J. Abrams, which began production Wednesday.

Also, add Winona Ryder to the cast list as Spock's Mother. However, Variety says “Paramount Pictures and director JJ Abrams have set Ryder to play the Vulcan mother of a young Spock.”

Considering Spock's Mother was supposed to be human, I'm not sure if that's a misprint or a plot twist.

• Captain Pike cast in new Star Trek >
• Winona Ryder joins Star Trek >
• STAR TREK XI MISCASTING JUST ABOUT COMPLETE >
  

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Cloverfield Roundup

What could possibly be more important than news on the upcoming J.J. Abrams flick, Cloverfield /1-18-08?

How about a sequel to one of the greatest surf movies of all time. Yes, they're going to make Point Break 2! We can finally know the fate of Johnny Utah and Bodhi.

Oh, I can die happy now...

While everything else is downhill from there, I guess I'll just have to see what else is going on. Actuall, only a tiny amount of Cloverfield -1-18-08 related news brewing today. Most of J.J.'s news is centered around the Star Trek movie he's making while the Cloverfield/1-18-08 gets a news update once every 2 weeks.

As you may know, the big news this week is the pre-screen of the new Cloverfield/1-18-08 trailer by CHUD. While only time will tell its validity the real fact that only 11 weeks remain until the movie actually hits.

The Bad Robot homepage got a minor update this past week. This is the production unit of J.J. Abrams and it features only a bad robot graphic. The only difference is the picture size. It's about 1/3 the size it used to be and was for years. A small and insignificant update but the fact they are glossing up their homepage (which is linking via the official Apple trailer) might mean some updates coming soon.

Which leads me to this great find by Cloverfield News about one of the production houses, The Third Floor, who is working on the Cloverfield/1-18-08 movie. As a huge fan of cinema and future producer I find the work that The Third Floor does highly interesting and extremely valuable.

The Third Floor does pre-viz, or pre-visulization. Think of it as electronic storyboards where directors can have quick models of their movies created to see how they will look finalized. Very important when you're working with CG monsters and sets. Their work also includes texturing and 3-D tracking.

They have a great sample reel of their movies clips which demonstrates their work. This group is huge and has done animatics for George Lucas on Star Wars III as well as a range of movies from the Narnia series to Cloverfield.

• Bad Robot Homepage>
• Surf's Up! Point Break 2>
• The Third Floor Inc., Previsualization for Cloverfield/1-18-08>
  

So while we're waiting on Cloverfield/1-18-08 to bring us some news, lets check out what else is going on in the world of movies.

• National Treasure: Book of Secrets has launched a new trailer (here). The original cast and crew including Nicolas Cage return. And how can they top stealing the Declaration of Independence? By kidnapping the President, of course.
• Indiana Jones 4 has wrapped and gotten a nice, new website (here) complete with the Indian Jones theme music.
  
• The X-files are coming back to the big screen. Word is Chris Carter and gang will reunite for a brand new motion picture (here)
• Unlike Cloverfield, the new Dark Knight flick has a healthy viral campaign. Check out the new developments including a new movie still of Heath Ledger as The Joker (more)
  

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