Another Matt Reeves Interview

Matt Reeves has another interview about Cloverfield online. Its pretty amazing to me how much this guy is getting around in promoting the film, more then the actors themselves which is unusual. Any case in the interview he discusses why he joined the project, the origin of the title of the movie and other things.

The full interview, one of the best, yet is here.

Highlights:
- Joined movie because liked JJ Abrams and writer Drew Goddard and found the movie outline interesting due to character approach and the filming style it needed.
- Same story about the teaser trailer and decision to release it without a title, with effort to generate the same curiosity that Close Encounters of the Third Kind did for them when they where kids.
- Enjoyed the unusual shooting style. Also edits and cuts are done as if the camera was cut off rather then the usual jumping around and coverage of closeups and the like. Also used for the passage of time within the film.
- "The whole aesthetic was supposed to be that if this happened to anyone in the audience and they had been there with their video-phone or their camera, that they would never turn off their camera until there was a reason to turn off the camera."
- The monster is NOT inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu.
- The movie, to a degree, was inspired by a visit to Japan by JJ Abrams and his son during promotion of Mission Impossible 3. After seeing a toy store and the popularity of Godzilla there he decided that the US needed "our own national monster."
- Watched several movies to prepare for the Cloverfield shoot including Children of Men, Alien, Jaws, and The Shining. Also looked at YouTube videos (example here at 2:32 point) and the like.
- The actors improvised alot during the filming, often times would do 50-60 takes for a scene. At the time of casting their was no script (explaining the use of Alias scripts for the audition).
- The name Cloverfield was the result of a miscommunication with Drew Goddard. It was supposed to be Cloverdale, named after the street by JJ Abrams' old office.