Cloverfield
Starring: Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas
Directed by: Matt Reeves
Release date: January 18, 2008

The Plot: Paramount has kept this film very much under wraps, but we do know that Cloverfield involves a Godzilla-style monster siege of Manhattan. What the monsters are, where they come from, and what the hell the beleaguered residents of the Big Apple do about it remains a mystery.

The Pros: Producer J.J. Abrams is steering this ship, and if anyone knows how to milk a good secret, it's the cocreator of Lost. Combine that with Abrams's affinity for action (he directed Mission: Impossible III), and you probably have a combined head-scratcher and pulse-pounder awaiting you.

The Cons: Like Lost, once the secrets are revealed, will they prove to be worth the hype? We've already seen a CGI Godzilla stomp through New York — can Abrams and crew really expect us to get excited to see it again?

Cheat Sheet:

• Given Abrams's intense secrecy, rumors abound that the film is everything from a movie spinoff of the show Lost to an adaptation of the '80s giant-robot anime series Voltron.
• Like The Dark Knight, Cloverfield has been stoking fan interest through a series of viral websites and alternate-reality games. The sites "Ethan Haas Was Right.com" and "1-18-08.com" were among the sites "discovered" by people seeking information on the film. Only "1-18-08.com" was confirmed as an official site.
• Certain clues on the "Ethan Haas" site led people to believe that Cloverfield may include creatures culled from the works of H.P. Lovecraft. So far, this has not been definitively proven or denied.
• To avoid leaks, actors auditioning for roles were allegedly given scripts for Abrams-produced shows like Lost and Alias rather than the Cloverfield script.

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