New pic up at http://www.1-18-08.com/.
LOS ANGELES - What is it? That's the question moviegoers are asking about a mysterious trailer promoting an unnamed film shown in previews before Transformers.
The footage is hand-held home video of a party in New York, featuring happy-looking twentysomethings dancing and mugging for the camera before disaster strikes.
The lights go out. The party people go to the roof and see huge fireballs erupting in the city. Panic ensues and the group runs to the street, where something large hurtles through the sky and crash-lands in the street in a heap of burned wreckage.
It's the Statue of Liberty's head.
There is no title on the trailer. The date 1/18/08 is shown, along with a line saying it is produced by Lost co-creator and Mission: Impossible III director J.J. Abrams.
The project is known by the code name Cloverfield, but that is not the real title, according to Paramount Pictures, the source of the trailer.
9NEWS Entertainment Reporter Kirk Montgomery learned exclusively on Friday from a secret source, who is on the set of the film every day, that it is not a sequel or a remake (which precludes King Kong or Godzilla). It is not Voltron or "Lost"-related.
The source told Kirk the entire film will be presented through a handheld video camera, as in the style of the trailer. All of the actors involved had not seen scripts when they signed on for the project and are under strict legal gag-orders not to discuss any aspect of the film.
The source says 50 percent of the $30 million budget for the film is devoted to special effects.
The official Web site is www.1-18-08.com, but the source tells Kirk that apparently a Japanese-style Web site, www.slusho.jp, has lots of clues yet undiscovered by the rabid fans who have been scouring the Internet for hints.
The source told Kirk the biggest clue of the trailer is in the line: "I saw it, it's alive, it's huge."
The source also says the sound the "creature" makes is another big clue. He says the creature is an organic, living thing.
The film is being released by Paramount, but they also are not saying anything. Yet.
Click here to watch what all the fuss is about.
The film received mixed reviews, and polarized opinions from audiences with the film experiencing a second-weekend box office drop of 70%,[1] the second-largest drop ever recorded for a movie that opened as the top box office draw its opening week.
"It's about an alien that wipes out all of New York City," says one of the owners, who wants to remain anonymous. "The footage is taken the day before everyone dies. A bunch of kids come to Coney Island with a video camera. The movie is a flashback to that day."
A user at unfiction posted the following interesting bit about J.J. Abrams' secret movie 1-18-08:
I just wanted to let you know about something I saw at a warehouse sale called Frank & Son's here in Southern California. Basically they sell collectible stuff like cards, comics, toys, etc. It is like a mini convention hall every wed and saturday.
Anyway, I was at a large booth where they sell movie posters. One of the posters there had a snapshot of the statue of liberty overlooking the city of new york. The statue was missing it's head and at the top in large white letters it said "Monstrous". The lower right corner had in smaller white letters, 1-18-08.
Fake? I dunno but that is what I saw. I also snapped some cell phone pics and if possible i'll try to upload them.
Here's the photo he took, which is very low-quality with a bit clearer version below it. Although many will think the title of the movie is "Monstrous," we think the text is more for a teaser poster campaign describing the monster in the film.
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