Gadgetory

JJ Abrams is known for maintaining CIA levels of secrecy around his films but the latest film from bad robot takes it to the next level three months ago 10 Cloverfield Lane didn't even exist as a blank page on IMDB but this week it hits theatres I sat down with the producer and Star Wars director to talk about the film and the least spoilery way humanly possible how close are you to actually just pulling a cinematic Beyonce just dropping the whole thing on a Friday no warning no trailer I don't know quite get away with that but it was it was definitely a decision to withhold the movie as long as possible and just to kind of see what might happen you know anything that breaks the template and the sort of expected way of things is always kind of fun to to try and paramount was open to doing it which I was thrilled about yeah and I mean the title obviously makes for a lot of speculation about how this ties in to Cloverfield and all of that I personally enjoyed it it's just a trapped in a bunker with John Grant my movie which in which way do you look at so many of those yeah yeah it's a it's a strong genre in the bunker I mean with what way do you think it's more enjoyable for audiences to come in as like a standalone or how worried do you think this we purposely you know didn't call this movie Cloverfield - because it's not a direct sequel at all and the idea is to begin what is in part and anthology and in part this other thing that we're working on and it felt like you know it's things don't make sense until you know them so it's like what is being questioned right now if this works will be understood as soon as it does and what I'm hoping is we have this sort of big idea that it would be really fun to do if we get the shot and this is just another sort of you know step in that in that direction but I think that that the movie is deserving of attention I think it's it's it's a funny terrifying weird twisted cool suspenseful thriller and those are really fun to see when they work and I think that Dan and the cast and crew great job tell me a little bit of how you started collaborating with Dan because he came out of the the kind of film journalism coverage world and like how did that how did the idea develop with him and how did you find him well Lindsey Weber who produced the movie with me knew Dan beforehand she was a fan of his he had done some shorts as well and he came in to meet he had an incredibly clear vision was a kind of very clear collaborator and so we began working on you know the script once he was signed on while he was shooting I was working on Star Wars so I would watch dailies but I wasn't on set with him and then in post we were just working together to make you know sure that the rhythm of the movie the effects the sound design all that kind of stuff was as strong as it could be but you know he directed this movie I was just trying to be as helpful as I could to help you know his vision be seen through but he was a wonderful collaborator yeah I mean it shows on screens he was so cool so like ready in service he's great yeah he's a very confident director and I loved it it's almost more Hitchcockian in a way than anything else and I feel like you know as the first Cloverfield movie was you know a family footage movie and Matt Reeves you know did such an amazing job with that and that covered that kind of energy dan does something you know wholly different with this movie it's very confident in time that time is very still but building tension in a different way and it just feels you know it's an incredibly cool thing to watch this movie and think it's us first yeah