10 Cloverfield Lane trailer teases what looks like a Cloverfield sequel
When the first trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane suddenly popped up last month, it took Cloverfield fans and J.J. Abrams enthusiasts by surprise. Had the producer and his Bad Robot label secretly helped fuel a Cloverfield sequel starring John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead? From the trailer, it would appear so. But, if you dig a little deeper into the surprise reveal, there’s a good chance this movie is creative studio shuffling to cash in on an established property.
Watch the 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer and recent TV spot, and read a bit more about the strange way this movie might be playing the system after the jump.
Here’s the trailer that sparked all the curiosity:
And here’s a short TV spot/commercial that aired during the 2016 Super Bowl:
That first trailer teases a tense-looking secluded thriller as it is, so topping that with a Cloverfield tie-in cherry seems worth the watch, right? On the surface, a Cloverfield sequel seems like a given, but it might surprise you to learn this one actually started out as something completely different. According to a recent Reddit post that quickly got picked up by ScreenRant, the 10 Cloverfield Lane movie was originally released to test audiences last fall under two different titles, Valencia and The Cellar.
In both early versions of the movie, the Cloverfield element was absent, and instead the premise focused on the trio of characters surviving after a nuclear war. It would seem Paramount Pictures decided to briefly put a hold on the movie’s release, do some reshoots, and now 10 Cloverfield Lane is coming the theaters as a “new” movie with a Cloverfield thread running through it. Some have called it cash grab attempt by the studio to make money with a product that would otherwise have flown under the radar. It’s a mixed bag, in my opinion, but interesting at the very least.
It’s not uncommon for studios the sit on movies for years before pushing them to theaters or even canning them completely. The Cabin in the Woods sat on a shelf for a few years after it was completed before it finally came to life, so chopping up something like The Cellar and tying it together with those Cloverfield threads isn’t that farfetched. To solidify that this is, indeed, a Cloverfield sequel now, viral marketing for 10 Cloverfield Lane has even started to surface.
Whether it’s an official plot synopsis for 10 Cloverfield Lane or an earlier version of the story, here’s a snippet of plot that could be tracked down from IMDb:
Waking up from a car accident, a young woman finds herself in the basement of a man who says he’s saved her life from a chemical attack that has left the outside uninhabitable.
And here’s some more info floating around:
Her captor, a doomsday prepper, tells her he saved her life and that there has been a terrible chemical attack that has left the outside uninhabitable. She does not know what to believe and as tensions rise, she decides she must escape, regardless of the terrors that await outside.
10 Cloverfield Lane stars John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr., and Mat Vairo. The movie hits theaters on March 11, 2016.
Director Dan Trachtenberg may have already surprised you with his Portal: No Escape short film (below). If anything, maybe 10 Cloverfield Lane will be Trachtenberg’s chance to break into the industry and make something original for the big screen. Here’s hoping this movie does well, for his sake.