Back in summer of 2007, a mysterious trailer came attached to prints of Michael Bay’s Transformers, bearing a production company logo and a release date, but not even a title. The film was Cloverfield, from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and it was one of many examples of Abrams’ “mystery box” theory in action – a film promoted as much for its secrecy as its content. And now, they’ve done it again.
Last night, perhaps as a preemptive reward for the trial they were about to endure, viewers of Bay’s new film 13 Hours were treated to a trailer for a heretofore unknown film called 10 Cloverfield Lane. The film’s precise connection to the previous Cloverfield is not yet clear – in a statement, producer Abrams calls it a “blood relative of Cloverfield” – but here’s what we do know: it’s set (at least partially) in a Kimmy Schmidt-style bunker; it stars John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and John Gallagher, Jr.; it’s directed by Dan Trachtenberg, a commercial and short film director making his feature debut; and its writers include Whiplash writer/director Damien Chazelle.
Oh, and it’s got a bang-up trailer:
10 Cloverfield Lane is out March 11, so all of our “most anticipated movies of 2016” lists are already all screwed up.