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Will J.J. Abrams’s ‘Cloverfield’ Be a Jurassic Farce?

A scene from Cloverfield — just kidding, it’s Photoshop.
Getty Images/AFP (Velociraptor), Courtesy of Paramount (Cloverfield
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Ever since J.J. Abrams’s Cloverfield (a.k.a. Monstrous, a.k.a. Overnight, a.k.a. 1-18-08, etc.) wrapped two weeks ago, it’s been hard to uncover any new, concrete information — so how about some baseless gossip? Update: Maybe it is baseless gossip!

The usually reliable Website Dread Central claims to have a source with insider knowledge of Abrams’s top-secret movie; “Mr. Slusho” says that Cloverfield will feature not only the big, Statue of Liberty–destroying monster from the trailer, but smaller ones as well:

te>”It’s not Godzilla or Voltron (duh) or even Cthulu; anyone expecting there to be some sort of elaborately detailed backstory may be in for a disappointment. Expect an old-fashioned monster movie retold in a very modern Blair Witch sort of way — but with a twist. You see that giant monster that emerges from the ocean to begin laying waste to New York City … it didn’t come alone.

Much of the movie will revolve around the characters fleeing for their lives, not from the big one stomping the city, but from the “raptor-like” smaller versions hunting them down.”

Sounds plausible to us. During the filming of a scene in Central Park two weeks ago, one on-set spy allegedly heard an actor, hiding under a bridge, shout the line “There’s one up there!,” which would certainly lend some cred to the multiple-monster theory. Plus, we always expected this thing to turn silly at some point.

If anyone out there with behind-the-scenes access to Cloverfield info feels a little disgruntled, don’t hesitate to e-mail us at vulture@nymag.com. We’ve already spoiled the ending, but we’d love to spoil the beginning and middle too.

Update: /Film claims that they were sent the same info, but chose not to run it because their sources told them it was untrue. We’d ask our secret Cloverfield source, but we don’t have one.


Exclusive Cloverfield info!
[Dread Central]
Earlier: J.J. Abrams’s ‘Cloverfield’ Wraps — and We’ve Got the Call Sheet That Might Spoil the Ending

Will J.J. Abrams’s ‘Cloverfield’ Be a Jurassic Farce?