ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How does an original script you acquired get to be a movie under theCloverfieldbanner?
J.J. ABRAMS:What happened was that we madeCloverfieldin 2008.
We had this fun experience surprising people with that movie.
Credit: ILLUSTRATION by FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA for EW
Ive been hearing now for nearly eight years, When is the sequel coming out?
When are you going to do a sequel?
I was always surprised at how frequently people would talk aboutCloverfield.
But were in a post-Godzilla, post-Pacific Rimtime.
We talked about it quite a bit, but nothing presented itself that demands it get made.
This script came in and had an incredibly strong central conceit.
It was a very powerfulTwilight Zoneidea.
Its not the continuation of the story that people might think of, but it was so clearly associated.
So you chose to interpret We want anotherCloverfield as We want another movielikeCloverfield?
What I interpreted was people wanted to see another point of view.
People want to see what happens afterward.
People want to see that the monster survived the attack.
People want to see if there are more monsters.
All of those things were clear.
We thought, Lets be overt about it.
Lets make the connection, but not make it the kind of sequel that people might expect.
Does the trailer drop tie into that?
We obviously didnt reveal anything about this movie a year or six months beforehand.
We kept it quiet because we knew we wanted to try something unusual.
Something unusual doesnt always work, but at least, its unusual.
Everything takes a certain path.
We thought that was fun.
Why dont we try the short game, see what happens.
If we release this thing just before the movie comes out, will it work?
The movie is so creepy.
Its so well told.
[Director] Dan [Trachtenberg] did an amazing job on this.
The actors are great.
This movie, I think, deserves this association.
I think that its a special movie.
Do you feel that youre running a risk by putting that word in the title?
There is a monster in this movie.
Its not the monster you expect, but there is a monster.
Its a very different story, but it is a spiritual successor to that movie.
Arent you always toying with expectations when you release a trailer thats light on information?
You have to know something to want to know more.
You could probably recite 80-some percent of what happens in the movie based on the trailer.
That to me is a failed trailer because I dont need to see a Cliffs Notes version.
I need to see something that makes me want to see the entire version.
I think this kind of release and the movie is a complete thrill ride, very smartly told.
It is really scary.
It is incredibly weird.
It has a huge heart.
Theres an incredible main character that Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays.
Shes terrific in the movie.
I think there are some incredibly cool special effects.
It ends up doing all of these things that I love in a movie.
Has the Mystery Box been over-emphasized?
Oh, of course.
It is by no means a principle that I apply to stories.
I dont start working on ideas and say, Wait a minute!
How does the Mystery Box fit into this?
I do think its been overused, and I dont think anyone even cares about it.
What the fk would I do if this were me?
Do the idea of theCloverfieldfilms also tie in to whom you are working with?
Dan definitely follows in that tradition.
you could see that the DNA comes from the same place.
That was definitely among the things we talked about being a byproduct of this idea.
Theres a larger conceit that were playing with.
This is just this movie, and its only two films that were talking about right now.
There is something else that wed like to do, and hopefully well get a shot.
Im loving this moment.
I feel like theres this great opportunity to look around.
I have some ideas that Im playing around with.
I couldnt be happier not knowing what is next.
