Cloverfield: the J. J. Abrams plan to create unprecedented frankness – The Point

“I do not know if it’ll work,” confessed J. J. Abrams before the release of 10 Cloverfield Lane . The producer had made the bet to shake up the marketing codes of the traditional franchise keeping complete secrecy about the project. And it was worth it. The gods of the critics and the box office are in its favor. But now we have seen, a question nagging us what Abrams and plays it mean when it says 10 Cloverfield Lane is “related by blood” to Cloverfield (released 2008), while it is neither a sequel nor a prequel, much less a reboot or a remake?

The two films have almost nothing in common. The first, conducted eight years ago by Matt Reeves, was a disaster movie of pure science fiction where Godzilla turns New York into a battlefield. The second, led by Dan Trachtenberg, is a psychological thriller filmed in camera. A man holds two people in a bunker under the pretext that there is a deadly threat to the surface. 10 Cloverfield Lane and Cloverfield do not have the same monster nor the same characters and the same unlikely temporality. So how do they belong to the same franchise?

J. J. Abrams has always remained vague in his explanation: “It’s like Cloverfield was the amusement park, and each of his films is a different arena.” And specify length of interviews: “This is a feature in itself Connections are many ways – thematically, spiritually, in terms of gender – but if you expect to see Cloverfield. 2 not Cloverfield 2 . And it is not intentionally titled Cloverfield 2 . ”

It’s like The Twilight Zone. It is an anthology of several stories.

If one were to compare it looks like the model that inspired the director is the one of the TV series The Twilight ( Twilight Zone ), aired from 1959 to 1964 in the United States, including all the episodes were independent and that no character was recurring. They were simply bound by a same atmosphere, pessmiste tone and purpose of criticizing American society. Moreover, Abrams confirms: “We started to think internally we could make the explicit connection, he stated at his press marathon for the film Rather than just saying. Oh, like Cloverfield , why do not we be setting-connection? And we began to realize that there was a most important idea behind it that could link the films. C is as in The Twilight . This is an anthology of several stories. ” But the design of J. J. Abrams for this franchise seems even more ambitious.

Folk traditions

The producer has proved that the limits of what can become a universe are larger than all the studios thought. The films from comics, franchises like Transformers or Star Wars and even the last of the resurrected, Ghostbusters , are supposed to intersect and complete. None of these stories are independent, they work like Russian dolls, a puzzle. Taking the decision to make Valencia (code name 10 Cloverfield Lane ) a cousin of Cloverfield , without it being a sequel official, the director-producer breaks this model and launching a new type of franchise, making sure to pass the title of most creative producer of Hollywood, with a step ahead of the trend.

for Abrams, it’s a new way to build on the success of Cloverfield ($ 175 million in revenue for a budget of $ 25 million) and sting to the quick public curiosity for draw in theaters. “It seemed to be unexpectedly cool and fun to tell an original story in a cover that would attract attention, and more importantly introduce a profound thematic connection by telling original stories with filmmakers, actors you can not be seen before or would certainly not in something like this. “

monsters can take different forms.

There is still an abstract connection between the two “cousins”. The protagonists of each film are young people fleeing disappointed love. Their lives find themselves disrupted before the arrival of the threat. The two feature films are very immersive, one with a “shaky cam” always held by a person, the other through plans close to the body in a confined space. In each, the suspense and tension within the terror of the unknown. And it inevitably comes the moment of confrontation with the beast, whether human or not. “The monsters can take different forms,” ​​was justified J. J. Abrams. 10 Cloverfield Lane and Cloverfield are two different experiences for the same sinking feeling totally intrusive.

The producer, satisfied with the effect of his movie, already thinking about the future. “I’d be lying if I did not say that there is something else. If we are lucky enough to do it, it could be very cool to connect some of the stories. There is a greater plan …”