Give Me More Cloverfield!
After such an original marketing campaign, unmatched viral hype, and an end result that delivered the goods, it’s always bothered me how quickly CLOVERFIELD fell off the radar. I’m as guilty of it as much as the next guy and if it wasn’t for a random re-visit last week I would have never realized exactly how much I love this film. Let’s take a look at why, in a time when sequels and remakes are flooding the genre, this might be one story that’s worth extending.
There’s so many ways to approach another entry. We can pick up from where we left off, the monster still farting around in Central Park looking for shit to eat while the military prepares to level all of Manhattan. We could skip weeks/months/years ahead, revealing that the monster jumped back in the water just before the mushroom cloud to heal it’s wounds and then pops up in a different city. There’s also the same day – different camera option, that was originally hinted at by the production team, which would show the events from the first film through the eyes of an entirely different group of characters. How about son of Cloverfield? Or Bride of Cloverfield? I’d even take a fake documentary on the beheading of the Statue of Liberty.
Much like it’s earliest of advertisements, so much was left untold surrounding the monster itself. This leads me to believe the most mouth-watering option for a filmmaker would be the prequel. While an origin story sounds epic I worry that it would be drastically different from the first film and might not sit well with what made the story so interesting to begin with. Seeing Clovey kicking it back in the day on Monster Island might be a blast but totally ruins much of the chaos and mystery of the original film.
So what’s the official word on a sequel anyway? Many hardcore fans of the original were convinced SUPER 8, J.J. Abrams’ latest secret project, was the sequel they’d been waiting for. It’s not. Abrams himself has said the film has no connection to CLOVERFIELD whatsoever. Anything else out on the street is just rumors. Director, Matt Reeves has hinted in the past that he would like to re-visit the monster, but when is anybody’s guess. I guess next Tuesday.
Maybe it’s the booze talking but I find myself more obsessed with film than I was two years ago, when it actually came out. Did they bomb Manhattan? Are Rob and Beth alive? Did Lily’s helicopter clear the danger zone? Did Jason really die on the bridge? What exploded out of Marlena’s stomach? Is Hud’s torso still cracking horrible one liners? And, exactly where oh where is my monster hiding? To be continued…… hopefully.