Like many others this past weekend, I went to see the new Transformers movie. It was quite good BTW. However, what was shown before that was probably even more intriguing as is evidenced by the buzz on the interwebs the last couple of days.
A mysterious trailer was shown for a movie with no title. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. The trailer began with the usual bumpers for movie studios and production companies. This time around it was J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot production company. The trailer illustrates a going away party for this guy thrown by all his adoring friends. It begins to get interesting when there is a rumble accompanied by flickering lights and a loud roar. Then, cut to everyone watching a news report about said rumble followed by everyone running to the roof in time to see a huge explosion with flaming debris flying all around.
Next is a creative volley of quick edits with interruptions in the audio that serve to add to the confusion. Everyone rushes into the street all the while there are more roars and screams. The trailer ends with an unknown object flying through the air and bouncing into the street filled with people. The object turns out to be the face of the Statue of Liberty which has been presumably ripped off by whatever is making all the noise.
Sounds exciting huh? Well as I said before, this trailer gave no title for the movie—only the date of release, 1-18-08. Some searching online reveals dozens of articles and posts about this and very little real info. A code name that has been thrown around is “Cloverfield” or just “Clover”. There is a website up at www.1-18-08.com that currently shows two photos. One from the “party” and another of two frightened looking people… that’s it. There is also another site at www.ethanhaaswasright.com that has a series of puzzles that really offer no clue about the film either.
There are several theories about what the movie is. Some have said a re-telling of “Godzilla” in efforts to redeem it from its last outing nearly ten years ago. Others still have said it’s a “Voltron” movie taken from the 80’s era cartoon series of which I was a fan. That theory is doubtful in my opinion simply because it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Some have said that it’s something altogether new. I for one kinda hope it’s that one.
Whatever the case may be, the buzz seems to be working. It is being said that this is the greatest movie trailer of all time and with all the talk about it, that would be hard to argue with. It will be interesting over the next 6 months or so to see the effect of this campaign and most of all, WHAT THE HECK IS IT!!!
P.S.- You can catch the trailer over at Apple’s Trailer page.
JM • posted 11:37 pm
