J.J. Abrams did it again, fooling us all with his clever guise. In 2014, it was reported that filmmaker Dan Tractenberg would be directing a post-apocalyptic thriller called Valencia (also referred to as The Cellar) for Bad Robot and Paramount Insurge.
Well, it's true that the film will be a post-apocolyptic thriller; but, it appears the real identity of the movie is a Cloverfield sequel. Yup, Abrams pulled another fast one on us. A teaser trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane was released today, suggesting that we're not only getting a sequel of sorts, but that it's already in the can and set to release on March 11, 2016 — that's just two months from now.
Speaking to Collider, producer J.J. Abrams — fresh off directing the blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens — explained, “The idea came up a long time ago during production. We wanted to make it a blood relative of Cloverfield. The idea was developed over time. We wanted to hold back the title for as long as possible.”
Even with the teaser trailer, 10 Cloverfield Lane is very much a mystery. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Faults), John Gallagher Jr. (The Newsroom), and John Goodman (Argo, to name just one on his impressive resume), all appear to live happily underground. It's revealed, however, that Winstead and Gallagher Jr. are actually victims of Goodman's character, imprisoned in this undergound vault.
Collider actually spoke to Winstead last year, before we knew of 10 Cloverfield Lane. She revealed that the film has only three actors, and touched a bit on the premise:
“It’s basically my character wakes up in a cellar and I’m being kept down there by John Goodman. He tells me that basically the world is over outside because there’s been a nuclear fall-out. It does have similarity to Faults, in some ways, because you don’t know who’s telling the truth or who to believe. There’s a lot of, who’s manipulating who, and all of that. Tonally, it’s very different, but it has some of those same themes.”
Based on the teaser and what Abrams has said, it sounds like 10 Cloverfield Lane isn't a direct sequel, but rather takes place in the same universe of Cloverfield. You'll also notice the movie appears to ditch Cloverfield's "found footage" approach director Matt Reeves approached the original with.
The trailer is brief, leaving me with some serious blue balls, but based on the little I've seen and heard, it sounds very intriguing. Good thing we don't have to wait long as 10 Cloverfield Lane is set to release on March 11, 2016.
[Collider]
