Four More TV Spots

Four more TV spots below for Cloverfield bringing the total to 7 that I know about (see left hand column about halfway down for all of em).
Update: The orginial videos where pulled from YouTube for some reason but was able to find replacements via Cloverfield Clues.

TV Spot #4 - We Are Not Alone


TV Spot #5 - Some Thing Has Arrived


TV Spot #6 - Who Would You Go Back For?


TV Spot #7 - Teaser

Cloverfield TV Spot 3

Another TV spot for Cloverfield has hit the web. It is comprised mostly of previousily seen footage with just a touch of new.
TV Spot #3 - Their Only Hope Is Each Other

IESB Cloverfield Interviews

IESB has posted an interview with Michael Stahl-David, "Rob Hawkins", and Cloverfield director Matt Reeves. No much new information is revealed compared with previous interviews.

Full Michael Stahl-David interview is here.
Full Matt Reeves interview is here.

Merry Christmas!

Just a post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or simply have a good and safe day. Below is video of Charlie Brown Christmas as performed by the cast of Scrubs. Because I like both.

Cloverfield Viral Campaign in San Francisco

A Cloverfield viral campaign hit San Francisco last week with sidewalks marked up with "What is Cloverfield? 1-18-08" Kind of odd campaign but I guess the goal is to get people talking about it. I wonder if it actually works though.

Cloverfield TV Spot #2

A second TV spot for Cloverfield has hit YouTube joining its predecessor. It mostly comprised of the trailer footage with a touch more new scenes. Thanks to a site reader for the info.

Cloverfield TV Spot

From MovieWeb.com is the first TV spot for Cloverfield. Enjoy!

Cloverfield Monster and Story Preview

AICN strikes again in the Cloverfield department with a preview of the film from a test screening. The preview is full of cuss words and other sex based and bad analogies. Just a warning that this isn't really a work or kid safe post. Also SPOILERS lie within. So warnings aside, below is a truncated cut of the orginial post with some unrelated nonsense cut out.

... in the movie, the Cloverfield monster bites off some fucking heads. Only you get to see it from a way you don’t normally get to see heads getting bitten off, so basically the movie ... makes other head-biting-off-movies look like Georgia Rule with a peppermint cock in its ass.

The movie starts off really shitty though, with all this stuff about a young couple that’s in love, and she’s hot and he’s hot and I’m all like, “Who’s filming the Ambercrombie and Fitch catalogue?”

But then it’s like the movie heard you calling it a pussy so it puts on its dick-stomping boots and then surprises your dick with a punch from a fist wearing a cock-punch glove.

Things just don’t get scary – they get FUCKED UP. And I mean fucked up like the whole movie’s shot through a hand-held video camera, so you feel like this is happening to you (apparently, the video camera was recovered by the government, so at the beginning of the movie, when you’re told this, you think, “Man, something bad must’ve happened to whoever filmed this”, and you imagine a lot of shit, but then when you get to what ACTUALLY HAPPENS you’re like, “Fuck you, imagination, this was ten times worse than I thought” and then to get back at you your imagination makes you think about 2 Girls 1 Cup if Rhea Perlman and Edith Bunker were the girls)

So here’s the story: a monster attacks News York City.

But that’s not the fucked-up part.

The monster RIPS THE LIVING SHIT out of the city, and everyone in its path. It’s like the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina and Kathy Griffin’s vagina combined and turned into a giant murder-beast and it’s hungry for every hip person in Manhattan.

Which is another cool thing about the movie – everyone that’s getting eaten are like characters you see in those annoying movies that are always on IFC and Fagdance.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the giant monster starts rubbing itself on buildings, and then stuff falls off it’s gross body and crawls the fuck away – only the crawling-away stuff doesn’t stay away for long, if you know what I mean.

And then – and THEN – and I mean, at this point, the movie’s like a speed freak yelling at you, as if the giant monster and the things crawling away weren’t bad enough, there’s a third, even more messed-up thing the monster can do to a person, which I won’t spoil ‘cuz it made me kind of sick.

So, here’s my final thoughts:

The good: Monster fucking everything sideways, creepy-crawly things fucking everything that’s still not fucked, indie movie characters getting eaten and mutilated before they can talk about coffee or e-mails or their feelings.

The bad: Smarty-pants story-telling shit where the video you’re watching has un-recorded bits where you see the hero’s relationship a few weeks back, before the monster shows up. Except then there’s this final shot (from the flashback section) that’s actually kind of awesome ‘cuz it’s this very sweet, sunshine-y shot of something, except at that point you’re thinking some really bad thoughts about what the shot represents.

AICN Interviews Michael Stahl-David

AICN has posted another Cloverfield interview, this time with one of the leads Michael Stahl-David who plays Rob (the guy the party is for). The interviews covers how he got the role, some aspects of shooting the film, and what doing next.

The full interview is here.

Highlights:
- Got role after several auditions, first with a tape then two flights from New York to Los Angeles to audition.
- 1 auditions were based on scenes from the TV series Alias, to show how "would do in an intense circumstance". Second audition was a monologue written by Abrams just before. Doubt he did that for all of them so probably a good sign of interest in the actor.
- Does know the entire story, wasn't kept in the dark by the director (sometimes to retain secrets for movies actors will on get the script pages specific to their lines and no other). Since CGI was going to be inserted later, shown sketches and the like of what was planned.
- As far as the overall handicam look, he learned of it mostly from the released trailers ADR (automated dialogue replacement) that he did later to certain scenes.
- Describes the movie as "it's like a survivor movie.... It's a movie about a group of people in a crazy situation and trying to make it through it. And yeah, that involves a monster..."
- The party from the trailers before the attack is a going away party for Rob who got an job offer away from New York.
- About the other characters: Hud, friend and fun guy from college who does most of the camera holding work that Case Cloverfield is derived from. Also another character is Rob's brother, reckless partier. Beth, female friend that kind of want more with but never works out.
- Some actor bladder about how the camera as witness can't capture the "... subtle stuff that I'm doing with my face that would do to make it feel very natural..." which made shooting the film tough. Yeah the acting class blather annoys me anytime see or read it.

AICN Interview With Matt Reeves

AICN's Capone conducted an interview with Cloverfield director Matt Reeves. The discussion is goes from the 5 minute sneak peak that was released on Friday, to shooting to the fan response to the trailers. Mostly its a soft sell of the movie to generate excitement.

Full interview is here.

Highlights:
- Sequence with a collapsing building reminding some of 9/11 (didn't me), realizes might be some concern but its a giant-monster movie that is supposed to reflect fears of its time much like Godzilla and fear of the atom bomb when it was created.
- The single cam point of view was part of the film design from inception. Because of that, allowed for multiple takes with lots of improvisations on the cast (no indication though how much is used in the final product).
- Because of the style, like a home movie that is recorded off and on, the movie will not have the usual back story explanations, events will happen off camera, some events might be cut off unexpectedly and the like.
- The name Cloverfield is simple the "case designate" for the New York monster attack. Not the name of whatever created the monster. So analogous to case #468413.
- Credited Rob Moore at Paramount for the idea of not putting the name into the initial teaser trailer. Also tried to avoid the "The following preview has been approved..." card but wasn't able. Also apparently had to get approval from the flumoxed MPAA to do a trailer that didn't give a title to the movie.
- Apparently the multiple rumored names of the film where the result of trying remain under the radar while filming the movie.

Cloverfield Director Interview

The director of Cloverfield, Matt Reeves discussed the upcoming movie with shocktillyoudrop.com. The full interview can be read here.

Highlights:
- Was excited by the approach of the movie to do a "realistic monster movie".
- Mostly Handicam, but 16mm black and white footage is intercut into the movie.
- The movie will show the "huge" monster and "you see everything" about it.
- Doesn't know the number of FX shots in the film due to having frequent continuous takes (rather then cuts for closeups, distance, establishing, etc see in many movies). FX work is still ongoing with the movie.
- In casting they looked "for people who could improvise" so "could provide an intimate relationship with these characters".
- The teaser trailer was something thrown together so people can "have a sense of discovery again" and Paramount came up with idea to leave the title out.

5 Minutes of Cloverfield

JJ Abrams has released and introduces a 5 minute clip of Cloverfield that seems to take place very early in the movie that shows the massive explosion in the middle of New York City, the Statue of Liberty head landing in the street and other things as seen in the trailers. It also useful for giving an idea of how the hand held camera view is being employed in the movie. I have to admit the shaky cam didn't seem as bad as feared. Also some kind of contest attached to the widget below but not sure of the details on it. (source)

Cloverfield Running Time and Slusho Commercial

The running time of Cloverfield is reported to be 90 minutes long which is about the length of the average animated movie.

Also, the Slusho website has updated with a new and strange commercial for Slusho which you can find here in various resolutions. I think its mimicking Japanese commercials which tend to be really strange compared to American commercials.

Cloverfield Mini-"Review"

According to AICN, Viacom had a screening of Cloverfield with unfinished visual effects. Sadly the "review" is extremely light on details or any information simply saying "Just saw CLOVERFIELD in a small screening in NYC. IT WAS AWESOME!"

So there you go, some person thought Cloverfield was awesome. Hopefully more information from the screening will leak out.

Update: AICN has updated its post with three more "reviews" of the film from three people that saw it. The reviews don't really reveal much beyond the film point of view is done exclusively through a handheld camera and warns "with easy motion sickness be forewarned." They also confirm there is one main huge ugly monster and smaller monsters in the film. Overall they where positive about the film but the enthusiasm one expects from a film they might have thoroughly enjoyed isn't there.

Cloverfield Plot Summary

The official Cloverfield website updated itself to include a brief summary of the plot of the movie.

"Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives."

That handheld cam really worries me.