‘Cloverfield 2’ Is Happening; Will Be Written By Joe Barton And Won’t Be Found-Footage
Back in 2008, Matt Reeves and Drew Goddard delivered Cloverfield, an interesting deconstruction of the kaiju genre from the perspective of a group of partiers caught up in a giant monster’s attack on New York City. Now, a direct sequel is coming that may or may not have any connections to the two spin-offs.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Joe Barton, who is currently working with Reeves on a television series set in the same universe as The Batman, is writing a true sequel to the original Cloverfield. However, Reeves will not be involved in this new film, which currently does not have a director. THR indicates that the movie will be a departure from its direct predecessor in that it will not be presented in the “found footage” format, which was crucial to the narrative of the original film revolving around survivors of a deadly alien attack, but in a more traditional filmmaking style. J. J. Abrams will produce via Bad Robot alongside Hannah Minghella, which is interesting considering Abrams and Bad Robot have an existing commitment with WarnerMedia. No one has been cast for the film at this time.
Cloverfield originally started as a one-off movie, but it became an interesting sort of brand label for Twilight Zone-esque sci-fi scenarios from Paramount Pictures after the success of the first. While it didn’t have any real connections to the original movie, 10 Cloverfield Lane went from being a movie about a kidnapping to getting a sci-fi third act set piece thanks to some cleverly-applied reshoots adding a twist to an existing narrative. The Cloverfield Paradox has more of a direct connection to the original movie, thanks to the appearance of a certain monster at the very end, and the movie itself providing a vague explanation as to how the original incident happened. Unfortunately, the “make a non-IP movie into a Cloverfield spin-off” treatment didn’t work the second time around due to the rewrites drastically shifting the nature of the entire film, and the cancellation of a planned post-production overhaul meant to help solve the film’s muddled narrative; Paramount instead released the movie in the state that it was in directly to Netflix. On the bright side, the latter movie suggests that a Cloverfield multiverse exists, but as far as we know, this sequel will only focus on what happened to the world after the monster attacked New York City.
The untitled Cloverfield film is now in development.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
