J.J. Abrams’ Next Secret Project: 500 Rads

Published by Jeff Leins on: November 5th, 2009

In the summer of 2007, we started to hear whispers of a monster movie under the producer wing of “Lost” and “Alias” creator J.J. Abrams.  After months of speculation and cryptic viral marketing, Cloverfield stormed theaters and wreaked havoc on New York City.

Now there is a report from Pajiba about another secret project in development at Abrams’ Bad Robot label. It’s called 500 Rads. Well, for now. I wouldn’t put it past him to create this under a pseudonym and stage a big reveal leading up to its release.

A rad is a radiation absorption dose, which suggests a nuclear disaster movie of some sort. As we all know from watching too many movies, radiation brings mutants and sometimes… wait for it… zombies. The article likens the new Abrams concept to Cloverfield and 28 Days Later.

Abrams is making this on a relatively small budget ($25 million) and planning a European location, presumably for security purposes.  Cloverfield was actually made for the exact same amount.

Of course, the speculation begins.  What does Abrams have up his sleeve this time?  I doubt it’s an adaptation of the video game Fallout, but that would be pretty rad.  A zombie or mutant movie would be equally fun, especially if done in the same “civilians on the run” style.  Your thoughts?