A quick internet search confirmed that I’m not the only one sitting around wondering if 10 Cloverfield Lane is a true sequel to Cloverfield. I would personally lean towards a “no” answer, as the film began life as a standalone script and it shares no writing or directing credits with the original film.
What seems to have caused all the confusion is the odd machinations of film financing, wherein a small label owned by Paramount Pictures folded and the project not yet called 10 Cloverfield Lane ended up with the company that made Cloverfield. The title change feels like slimy marketing, but before you start railing against the film, let’s take a step back and look at what is actually a pretty promising trailer.
First off, I should sound a personal bias alert, because Short Term 12 is the kind of film that makes me fall in love with its leads. That means I get pretty stoked when I see John Gallagher Jr. attached to anything, but my bias is backed up here by the casting of John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Neither of them need to be doing a bad genre film, which makes me think that the script delivers on the creepy, closed-in premise that the trailer sells so well.
The film’s success or failure will likely come down to execution, and while director Dan Trachtenberg doesn’t have a long record, he did made a fun little short in Portal: No Escape. Am I optimistic? Yes. Am I glad it’s not all filmed with shaky cam? Hell yes!
10 Cloverfield Lane is directed by Dan Trachtenberg and stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr. Its U.S. release is slated for March 11th, 2016. International release dates can be found here.
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