Back in February of 2021, it was announced that iBoy writer Joe Barton – who at the time was set to be the showrunner of the Gotham PD series on HBO Max – had been hired to write a new entry in the Cloverfield franchise. The Gotham PD series has since been scrapped, but that Cloverfield project is still moving forward, as evident by the fact that Under the Shadow‘s Babak Anvari signed on to direct the film back in September. Barton was recently doing the press rounds for his Netflix show The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, and Variety took the opportunity to ask him some Cloverfield questions.
When asked if he’s writing the script with producer JJ Abrams, Barton answered, “No, I’m writing it on my own, JJ is a producer on it. So I go away and do my drafts and then he gives notes and the Bad Robot execs give notes, and then he’ll jump in occasionally and look at drafts and stuff. I imagine probably the next one, because Babak Anvari just came on to direct so we’re getting closer to production. I’m doing some revisions at the moment and the hope would be that this would be the last sort of big script push, and then we get on to actually making it.“
He was then asked what it’s like to work on a project where fans have such big expectations. He said, “I like it. I do quite like the pressure of it. And I like that there’s expectations. There are people that are excited for it and there’ll be people [who] I think will be slightly defensive, because there’s a definite quite hardcore fan base, particularly for the first movie. But it’s a bit like with “Bastard Son,” you know, that book has hardcore fans as well and people are slightly… they’re waiting for you to fuck up, I think, in a sense. I feel very positive about the creative [on the “Cloverfield” sequel], I think what we’re gonna do with it is going to be really good. If I didn’t think we had a good idea, I didn’t actually think it was gonna be good, then I’d be worried. But I am really excited about the potential for what we’re doing with “Cloverfield,” and particularly the story that we came up with. I don’t know, I just think that I would really like to watch it, I think it will be a good movie. People are waiting with different preconceptions or prejudices or whatever, but all you can do at the end of the day is try and make something that’s really good, and then give it to them and see.“
Barton didn’t give away any plot details. As you would expect from a Bad Robot production, this one is being kept shrouded in secrecy. All we’ve heard so far is that, unlike the first Cloverfield (watch it HERE), this movie will not be in the found footage format.
Are you looking forward to seeing another Cloverfield movie? If so, what are you hoping to see in it? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.