Published on: 20th May, 2010

I wrote this a year ago, but in honor of MacGruber here’s a blast from the past:
The “ticking time bomb” is a common plot device for Hollywood movies. A quick cut to a digital countdown creates familiar thrills for film audiences, who watch comfortably in safety as the action hero disarms the bomb and saves [...]
Published on: 4th May, 2010

Leading up to the release of 2008’s Cloverfield, J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot kept film fans guessing about his relatively low-budget monster movie with cryptic trailers, scarce details, and a mysterious, unprecedented viral marketing campaign. Abrams is also one of the masterminds behind the enigmatic ABC series “Lost,” which ends its [...]
Published on: 5th November, 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 [...]
Published on: 13th July, 2009

In the pull-out section of the Herald-Sun, the Australian newspaper claims casting has begun on the American remake of the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In. According to the paper and the eagle eyes of Moviehole, Kodi Smit-McPhee is up for one of the leads in Let Me In, Matt Reeves’ new adaptation [...]
Published on: 8th July, 2009
Forget all the other summer special effects movies because there’s a new trailer for Sony’s District 9. The film is a subversive story about aliens forced to live in slum-like camps on Earth while being questioned by the government. They eventually recruit a human hero exposed to their biotechnology and rebel against our planet. Peter [...]
Published on: 30th June, 2009

Last year the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In made its way into my top ten of 2008. After a snub at the Oscar nominations and a release date opposite the sensation of Twilight, the little-known film was best described as a “hidden treasure.” If you don’t want to take my word for [...]
Published on: 18th March, 2008

Cloverfield was a profitable success, but it could have and should have been even bigger financially. There were huge mistakes made along the way and with a sequel on the way hopefully they’ve learned from them.
Published on: 31st January, 2008

After a successful first weekend, Paramount has jumped immediately on signing producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves for another Cloverfield movie.
The original only cost the studio about $25 million to make due to relatively unknown casting choices, but it made $46 million in the opening weekend after a sly viral marketing campaign.
It will be [...]
Published on: 20th January, 2008

As expected, Cloverfield took the weekend, but did so by exceeding box office predictions at an estimated $41 million. It is by far the biggest movie in early 2008 by about 70%.
This is also the biggest January opening in history, passing the Star Wars Special Edition re-release in 1997. The low budget monster [...]
Published on: 20th January, 2008

Months of viral marketing and an endless stream of Internet clues lead to a film that delivers on expectations and surpasses any comparisons to Godzilla or Blair Witch Project. If you’ve been keeping up with the guerrilla campaign, as Rob says into the camera, “you probably know more than we do.”
In case you missed [...]