Bugged Thoughts…about the CLOVERFIELD DVD
Sorry we’ve been away with this for the past couple of weeks…as most of you know, things have been a real BEAR this past two weeks…
Anyway, back to Bugged Thoughts…
As everyone who knows me, or who listens to Subject:CINEMA, or reads PNR knows, CLOVERFIELD was one of my favorite movies so far this year. The innovative first person camera story of a monster on the rampage in New York was FAR BETTER than Roland Emmerich’s gawd-awful version of Godzilla ten years ago. With JJ Abrams as producer and writer, and Matt Reeves directing, CLOVERFIELD was one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year so far, and deservedly so.
The DVD came out last week…and I have to say i’m SEVERELY disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong..the movie is STILL GREAT (no matter WHAT incorrect opinions my friends and my other half may harbor…heh heh heh), and so are the extras on the behind the scenes stuff. I’ve seen the Best Buy exclusive disc of material as well, and it’s pretty cool.
It’s not what is there on the DVD, but what ISN’T there…
The term "viral marketing" was tailor-made for the way Paramount and Abrams rolled CLOVERFIELD out. The untitled teaser for the film that appeared with TRANSFORMERS last summer was the first taste. The movie had only been shooting for 10 days when they showed that clip, and it really got people talking.
Then, several months of buildup, and the appearance of some really intriguing websites…none of which directly mentioned the movie, but which insiders started to leak out(with the usually secrecy-intent Abrams leading the way) were related to the "untitled" movie.
By the time January rolled around, these websites had taken on a life of their own as Abrams watchers began obsessing about what the movie was all about.
There is video on line of a disaster happening at an oil platform owned by a Japanese company called Taguruato, who had been plagued by an environmental group called TIDO Wave for sometime for their drilling policies. This video, which is news footage of the disastrous collapse of the Chuai Ridge platform, is available in a number of different languages. Taguruato also owned a number of subsidiary companies, one of which was the makers of a popular frozen drink called "Slusho!", whose main "secret ingredient" was something found in a very cold part of the ocean bottom.
There were over half a dozen seemingly unrelated sites, many with original video and pictures.
But sadly, NONE Of these have been included in the dvd release.
I admit it – Abrams and Reeves have me hooked – i’ve become a regular visitor to the various CLOVERFIELD sites (which continue to operate) checking out the latest discoveries by other fans, and trying to get a handle on the sequel (rumored to soon be shooting with an eye on a March 2009 release date). And while a link to the official site of this info (http://www.cloverfieldfiles.com) has been included if you watch the DVD on a computer, there’s nothing yet there besides behind the scenes stuff that was not included on the DVD. Great stuff, but NOTHING on the related backstory of Taguruato or the oil rig collapse, or even "Slusho!" (which I now have just ordered a tee shirt for, so I guess that makes me officially obsessed with this movie).
It would have been nice to have included all the extra stuff, and maybe a few clues to more stuff which led to sequel-related materials, but I guess we’ll have to make do…RATS…
All I know is that if JJ Abrams plans this same kind of thing for the release of STAR TREK, we’ve got a LOT of great stuff coming…
UPDATE: Apparently, some of the video mentioned above is included on the disc as a hidden Easter Egg…i’ll let you know if I can find it or not…
More Bugged Thoughts later this week…
