There’s been a lot ofCloverfieldchatter on the web lately, so let’s try to clear some of it up, shall we? Everything started back in 2008 with writerDrew Goddardand directorMatt Reeves’s original film, produced byJ.J. Abramsand Bad Robot, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The found-footage film was shrouded in secrecy right up until its release. Afterwards, however, the monster movie, which put actors likeT.J. Miller,Lizzy Kaplan,Odette Annable,Jessica Lucas, andMike Vogelin the spotlight, failed to make good on its promises that another entry would arrive anytime soon.
Jump forward in time to 2016 when,surprise!,Dan Trachtenberg’s10 Cloverfield Lanearrived. The claustrophobic, psychological thriller from screenwritersJosh Campbell,Matthew Stuecken, andDamien Chazelleand starringJohn Goodman,Mary Elizabeth Winstead, andJohn Gallagher Jr.established the “Cloververse” as a loose anthology of films that could vary by cast, genre, and storytelling style, but all existed in the same world. The fictional part of that world includes an Earth at the mercy of an alien/monster invasion with a human resistance force attempting to combat it; the real-world portion has Bad Robot, Paramount, and Abrams in common, which are pretty much the only tethers to the still-secretive “Cloververse.”
More recently, and with a much shorter time jump between films, we’ve had our eyes onCloverfield 3, also known asGod Particleand, more recentlyCloverfield Station. The third film in the ‘verse was teased by Abrams nearly two years ago, though it was uncertain at the time–ie, before the success of10 Cloverfield Lane–if it would ever see the light of day. It certainly seems like it will, since the new film was directed byJulius Onahand features an ensemble cast that includesDavid Oyelowo,Ziyi Zhang,Daniel Brühl,Elizabeth Debicki, andGugu Mbatha-Raw. The plot revolves around astronauts on a space station “who make a terrifying discovery that challenges all they know about the fabric of reality, as they desperately fight for survival”, but just how the “Cloverfield” factor works its way in remains to be seen;Brühl teased a bit about it at great personal risk. Additionally,Paramount might be looking to jettison the film–and possibly the entire “Cloververse”–to Netflix for a primo price. The current release date is set for April 20th, so we expect to hear something more concrete on this front sooner than later.
And speaking of sooner than later, there’sCloverfield 4, a.k.a.Overlord. We first reported on this film last Marchonce we caught wiseto the fact that the same production team was behind each of theCloverfieldmovies. Much like the previous films twisted theCloverfieldstyle a bit, expect more of the same fromOverlord: Directed byJulius Avery(Son of a Gun) and scripted byBilly Ray(Captain Phillips) andMark L. Smith(The Revenant),Overlordwill follow a group of American paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day. On the approach to their target–a village under Nazi occupation–they start to realize there there’s more to this place than a military operation.Jovan Adepo(Fences) andWyatt Russell(22 Jump Street) are on board as the leads. That film was scheduled to start filming last May, so it should be well and truly done by now and ready for release whenever Abrams/Bad Robot/Paramount/Netflix want to release it into the world.
The previous plan to release a new “Cloververse” movie each year clearly got botched somewhere along the way, but a double feature release in 2018 could be a great way to play catch-up. We’ll update you with more details as we learn them, but for now, expect to hear more on the upcoming “Cloververse” films before the year is out!
