It has been almost two years since the announcement of a new Cloverfield movie was in the works. Now, we got an update from Deadline that Babak Anvari is set to direct the sequel. Along with J. J. Abrams as producer, Matt Reeves is returning to help produce the film, as well.
Based on his profile on IMDB, Anvari is very much a new comer in Hollywood. He was a producer and director of Wounds and executive producer of Monsterland, a Hulu exclusive show. He has even directed and co-produced I Came By. He has other films that he is currently producing such as History of Evil, Black Flies, The Front Room, and Hot Air. His most well known film he has directed is Under the Shadow.
The track record for the Cloverfield franchise has been very hit or miss. The 2008 movie got popular due to the viral marketing campaign that lead up to the events of the movie. There was the teaser trailer that played in front of Transformers and multiple websites that built a story leading up to the events in Cloverfield. The movie itself did pretty good at the box office, overall, having made $80 million domestically and $172 million worldwide with an estimated budget of $25 million. So the movie did pretty good at the time of release.
Afterwards, J. J. Abrams announced in 2009 that he was working on a sequel having different ideas on what he wanted to do with it and the only problem was getting Matt Reeves to come back and direct it. By 2010/2011 after hearing on repeat that a sequel was gonna happen people sort of gave up because there was no actual movement on a sequel.
That was until January 2016, the first trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane appeared in front of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and suddenly everyone started talking about Cloverfield again. People were excited again once they saw the "Cloverfield" title and saw it was releasing March 8th that same year and people were dissecting through the trailer looking for clues that would lead them to the new viral marketing campaign. Then, information leaks out revealing that this movie was using an unused script titled "Valencia" and it sort of shocked fans that this movie was using someone else's idea rather than an original story. The movie arrived and did alright at the box office making a lot less than the first movie. It grossed at $72 million domestically and $110 million world wide with an estimated budget of $15 million. Consensus this time was that the film had a good story, John Goodman did a fantastic job with his performance along with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr., but it was not the movie people expected nor wanted. Fans of the first film wanted to know more about the monster in the first film and were disappointed that they were given aliens instead.
J. J.'s explanation this time was he wanted to turn the Cloverfield movies into an anthology series similar to The Twilight Zone where each movie are not connected to each other in any way other than they have "Cloverfield" in the title. While anthology stories do work in TV shows, it does not work as easily in movie form. And this proves to be especially true with the latest entry The Cloverfield Paradox, which released directly to Netflix after the 2018 Super Bowl.
Before the movie's release, fans already figured out the third installment was in the works and was using another unused script called "God Particle" as the movie's baseline story. Before the movie was finished, J. J. Abrams ditched post-production so he can go work on Star Wars. This lead to delaying the movie's release many times until the executives at Paramount had enough of waiting. It needed to be released and they couldn't wait for J. J. any longer. So Paramount made a deal with Netflix and released the film after the Super Bowl. The resulting consensus for The Cloverfield Paradox was that the movie was one of the worst movies Paramount and Bad Robot had ever made. Even though there are no box office numbers to really say if the movie did well or not the budget of Paradox was estimated to be $50 million, the highest budget movie in the series thus far. With that being said, there was no confidence from Paramount that the movie was going to make back the movie's budget, which would have to be around $125 million in total box office sales. If The Cloverfield Paradox had stayed on course for a theatrical release then the movie could very well have bombed in the box office just as Paramount feared.
At this moment, reactions towards a new Cloverfield movie have been mixed to negative because a direct sequel to the first movie should have happened years ago. Cloverfield is not J. J.'s biggest money making franchise by far, but his recent reputation is worrisome. Abrams is currently working on a new Constantine show for Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Comics. WBD CEO David Zaslav is growing more impatient with J. J. as he has shown no movement in the production of the show.
History has shown us that even though they are made with a low budget, chances of success are looking more and more slim. Abrams, Anvari, and Barton must make this next movie a success story. If it flops, then it will show the enthusiasm for more Cloverfield movies has dissipated and Paramount would be left embarrassed. Also, this is Babak Anvari's first Hollywood blockbuster film. This is his time to shine and prove himself what he can do. This movie could be where his career could really skyrocket or not. So he has to really take this film seriously if he wants to work on bigger films.
I want to know what you think on the matter. Do you still have some excitement left for this next film or has The Cloverfield Paradox tempered expectations? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts on the next film. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, MeWe, Gab, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.
Comments