Netflix’s surprise premiere of The Cloverfield Paradox sent critics and fans scrambling to the streaming service after the Super Bowl, only to be left divided. Some people were perfectly fine with the sci-fi thriller, warts and all. Others dumped on the third Cloverfield film as barely coherent and a waste of time.
After a Facebook Q&A (transcribed by The Verge), it seems like producer JJ Abrams has cleared up why the reaction Cloverfield Paradox is so all over the place — it seems like it was taped together with duct tape like the hazmat suit in 10 Cloverfield Lane. According to Abrams, the movie started out as a standalone feature and was only worked into the Cloverfield universe midway through shooting.
“Originally, it was written by Oren Uziel, who wrote a draft that was its own thing, and was around for a while. We started to think, ‘What are ways that this might fit into the world?’ But when we started shooting the movie, it was still something we were thinking about. Because the idea for the <em>Cloverfield</em> series was not so much that it be this narrative throughline, but more that they be these really fun sort of thrill rides. Like, if you imagine an amusement park, that’s a Cloverfield amusement park, and every ride has a different purpose, but they all connect in some way or another.”
Abrams also explained that (spoilers) Paradox‘s earth scenes were added after focus groups wanted to know what was happening off the space station. So, in other words, it seems like the film was retrofitted into the Cloverfield anthology at multiple points during production. It shows.
It’s still good promotion for the Cloverfield brand, and means the fourth Cloverfield film (which is already done filming) will be theater-bound in lieu of a Netflix premiere.
(Via The Verge)