Given the huge success of Cloverfield as both a film and a franchise, it may be a surprise to learn that the creation of the first movie was a hardscrabble and often chaotic effort. The handycam-shot monster thrilled was released in 2008 on a 25 million dollar budget and ultimately made over 172 million dollars, making more Cloverfield films a financially sound proposition. As the film was being made, however, there were questions of not only how it would be received, but if it was even possible to make in the first place.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant timed with a Cloverfield Limited Edition 4K SteelBook release for the film’s 15th anniversary, director Matt Reeves reveals the initial hesitation he felt upon first discussing the movie with producer J.J. Abrams. It turns out Reeves was asked to helm the Godzilla-esque thriller just twelve weeks before the film was set to begin shooting; what’s more, the film didn’t even have a finished script at the time. Ultimately, of course, Reeves took the job and history was made, but the filmmaker’s concerns were more than valid. Here are Reeves’ own words on the subject:
Matt Reeves: At the time it was definitely an adrenaline rush because, honestly, I didn’t know if it was going to work. I felt like I was doing this high wire act and was thrown out into this craziness going like, “Well, gee, we have no idea if we can make this handycam VFX movie, [or] if anyone’s going to want to see this.” We didn’t have a script when we started. Drew had this outline, but I remember J.J. specifically said to me, “Look, it’d be really cool if you did this,” and I said, “Well, why don’t I wait till we have the script, so that way I can see?” and he said, “No, no, no, you don’t understand. We’re shooting in 12 weeks.”
That’s how Drew and I became friends; we were just thrown into the aprmy together. We were in the barracks having these conversations, and then I would go from those conversations of us talking about the story to talking to my production designer, Martin Whist, because we didn’t have a script. He’s like, “Wait, we’re shooting at 12 weeks, I don’t know what to build.” I would, each day, try to describe the story, and he would, on napkins and pieces of paper, just write stuff down.
Let me be clear: we didn’t have a script when I started, and we didn’t have a script when we were prepping. Drew Goddard wrote a wonderful script that we had ready and done, but it was done literally two weeks before we were shooting. So, it was crazy.
How Cloverfield‘s Offscreen Hurdles Enhanced Its Onscreen Story
In his interview with Screen Rant, Reeves cited a low film budget as another key factor in crafting Cloverfield. As the proverb goes, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, and the fact that the filmmakers essentially scrambled to make the film smartly, quickly, and cheaply gave Cloverfield its much-lauded urgency and personality. To this day, Cloverfield stands apart from other found-footage films, big-money blockbusters, and even other Cloverfield franchise entries alike; this is especially notable given that the movie released in the same year as The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and easily could have otherwise been lost in the pop culture noise.
When asked if he wishes he could have done anything differently, Reeves doubled down on his appreciation for the chaotic experience of making Cloverfield. Not only did the experience solidify Reeves’ friendship with screenwriter Drew Goddard, but the frenetic pace of the film meant that second-guessing wasn’t an option. Ultimately, Reeves partially credits the actual process of making the film for how successfully the film itself portrays the chaos experienced by its characters. Here is Reeves’ take:
Matt Reeves: Weirdly, [for Cloverfield] to be made so chaotically but to be about such a chaotic experience, there was an authenticity to the craziness of it. In our own way we were having an experience that was like what [the characters] were going through, which was that we were just going by the seat of our pants, so there’s some stuff that came through that maybe wouldn’t come through like that today.
It’s certainly hard to argue with the results. With an actual Cloverfield 2 potentially on the way, it will be interesting to learn how the film approaches the lasting legacy left by the first.
The Cloverfield Limited Edition 4K Ultra-HD SteelBook arrives on January 17.
