More on J.J. Abram's Top-Secret Cloverfield

Yes, Cloverfield is most definitely a monster movie (Hollywood Elsewhere says it's ostensibly "about a creature from the sea that attacks Manhattan"...sounds a little like the Korean pic The Host) directed by Matt Reeves, who co-created Felicity with Abrams and written by Drew Goddard, who worked with Abrams on Alias and Lost. Paramount greenlighted the pic "under a veil of heavy secrecy in February," according to the Hollywood Reporter, around the same time that Abrams signed on to direct Star Trek. Casting process was also surrounded by mystery. No scripts or scenes were sent out--agents were contacted and simply asked if their clients wanted to be a part of the project or not. The production, which is currently shooting in New York on a reported budget of around $30 million, is mostly using a cast of relative unknowns--Michael Stahl-David ("The Black Donnellys"), Odet Jasmin, Mike Vogel ("Supercross") and Lizzy Kaplan ("The Class").

If you want to check out the teaser trailer again, you can probably find it somewhere on the Internet, but Paramount has taken down what was on YouTube (it was seemingly shot with a camcorder). Yesterday, I had compared the viral marketing plan of this movie to Artisan's Blair Witch. But remember how long they were able to sustain the mystery and intrigue surrounding that movie after it played Sundance? Up until the summer when it hit theaters, people were wondering if it was a "real" documentary or not. My, how times have changed. Information is disseminated and consumed so much more quickly now. Cloverfield is going to have to offer up something new pretty quickly if it wants to keep its momentum and build more interest. But still, what a great way to manufacture hype for the movie, which open Jan. 18th.