10 Cloverfield Lane Information

10 Cloverfield Lane is a 2016 American science fiction thriller film and the directorial debut of Dan Trachtenberg. The film was written by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stucken, and Damien Chazelle and stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman and John Gallagher, Jr. The film started as a script titled The Cellar, but during production under Bad Robot Productions, it evolved to become a spiritual successor of the 2008 film Cloverfield, although the two films do not share the same fictional universe or continuity. 10 Cloverfield Lane to be released on March 11, 2016 in DLP and IMAX 2D.

Summary

After surviving a car accident, a woman, Michelle, wakes up in an underground cellar, where most of the film takes place. She fears she has been abducted by survivalist Howard Stambler, who tells her he saved her life, and that a worldwide chemical attack has left Earth's surface uninhabitable. Uncertain what to believe, she decides to escape, no matter what dangers she may face outside.

Cast

• Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle
• John Goodman as Howard Stambler
• John Gallagher, Jr. as Emmet
• Bradley Cooper as Ben

Production

Origins

A hypothetical sequel to Cloverfield was often discussed with the press by Drew Goddard and Matt Reeves, writers and directors of the 2008 film, but they were uncertain to say when they would find the time to get together along with Abrams to develop it, as they were busy with other projects. Goddard and Reeves are credited as executive producers in this film. During the film's promotion, Abrams said the creative team behind the original had some ideas on developing Cloverfield 2, but the release of movies such as Godzilla and Pacific Rim caused them to abandon it as they found the concept of Kaiju movies played out. However, Abrams also suggested that he has thought of something that if they are lucky to get it made "could be really cool that connects some stories". Trachtenberg said he considers the ideas of doing a direct sequel to this film or another standalone Clovefield movie as equally valid.

10 Cloverfield Lane originated from an "ultra low budget" spec script penned by John Campbell and Matt Stuecken titled The Cellar. The Tracking Board included the script in "The Hit List" of 2012 - an annually published list of spec scripts written within the year that have impressed its voting members. In 2012, Paramount Pictures bought the script and commenced further development under Bad Robot Productions.

Development

Bad Robot was developing the film for Insurge Pictures, Paramount's specialty label for films with a micro-budget. When Bad Robot became involved, the film was assigned the codename Valencia to keep exact details of the production a secret.

Damien Chazelle was brought in to rewrite Campbell and Stuecken's draft and direct the movie. Chazelle dropped out from directing when Whiplash received funding. On April 3, 2014 it was reported production for Valencia was greenlit to begin in the Fall of 2014 under the direction of Dan Trachtenberg but the name of the screenwriter of the latest draft was given out as Dan Casey. A budget of about $5 million was reported to be expected, in keeping with the mandate of Paramount's Insurge division of producing micro-budgeted films.

On July 8, 2014, Variety reported John Goodman was in negotiations to star in the film. On August 25, 2014, they reported Mary Elizabeth Winstead had entered negotiations, and on September 22, 2014, John Gallagher, Jr. reportedly joined the cast.

During production the filmmakers noticed core similarities to Cloverfield and decided to make the movie what Abrams calls "a blood relative" or "spiritual succesor" of that film. "The spirit of it, the genre of it, the heart of it, the fear factor, the comedy factor, the weirdness factor, there were so many elements that felt like the DNA of this story were of the same place that Cloverfield was born out of," said Abrams. In other interviews he explained: "Those characters and that monster [from Cloverfield] are not in this movie, but there are other characters and other monsters." "This movie is very purposefully not called Cloverfield 2, because it"?s not Cloverfield 2, [...] So if you"?re approaching it as a literal sequel, you"?ll be surprised to see what this movie is. But while it"?s not what you might expect from a movie that has the name 'Cloverfield' in it, I think you"?ll find that you"?ll understand the connection when you see the whole thing." Trachtenberg confirmed that 10 Cloverfield Lane does not take place in the same fictional universe as Cloverfield. Winstead and Gallagher mentioned that during production they were aware that the movie had thematic similarities to Cloverfield but didn't learn that there would be an official connection until they were informed of the chosen title only a few days before the release of the trailer. Abrams came up with the title after finishing Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

In a March 2015 interview, a few months after production wrapped, Winstead was asked about her experience during Valencia and described it as a "really contained film", reiterating the premise of The Cellar about a woman being trapped with her mysterious savior in a supposed post-nuclear fallout world. Later in the month, Insurge Pictures was reported to have been dismantled and its staff absorbed by its parent company. Insurge's only film that had yet to be released was reported to be Valencia. Speaking of the rewrites that took place during production, Winstead called them "nothing that was major".

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on October 20, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Filming took place in chronological order in only one set. Scenes involving explosions, fire, and smoke were shot in Hahnville, Louisiana in early December 2014. Filming ended on December 15, 2014.

Music

Bear McCreary composed the music for the film. The soundtrack is due for digital release on March 11, 2016.

Marketing

The film's final name was revealed on January 15, 2016, when a trailer was attached to 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. Similarly to Cloverfield, to promote the movie a viral marketing campaign was used that included elements of an alternate reality game. Bad Robot kick-started the campaign in early February 2016 by updating the Tagruato.jp website they also used in the original. The campaign reveals backstory information about the character Howard Stambler and his daughter.

Release

The film will be released on March 11, 2016, in regular theaters and IMAX.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, pre-release tracking suggest the film will gross $25-30 million from 3,200 theaters in its opening weekend, besting fellow newcomers The Brothers Grimsby and The Young Messiah (both $7-8 million projections) and The Perfect Match ($5-6 million projection).

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 94%, based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. Metacritic gives the film a score of 80 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".