cloverfield

 

Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Matt Reeves
Written by	Drew Goddard
Produced by	J. J. Abrams Bryan Burk
Starring	Lizzy Caplan Jessica Lucas T.J. Miller Michael Stahl-David Mike Vogel Odette Yustman
Cinematography	Michael Bonvillain
Edited by	Kevin Stitt
Production company	Bad Robot Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	January 18, 2008
Running time	85 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million[2]
Box office	$172.4 million

Cloverfield is a 2008 American monster film directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams, and written by Drew Goddard. The film stars Michael Stahl-David, Odette Yustman, T.J. Miller, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, and Mike Vogel. The film uses a found footage motif to follow six young New York City residents fleeing from a massive monster and various other smaller creatures that attack the city while they are having a farewell party.

Development began when producer J. J. Abrams started conceptualizing a new monster and enlisted Neville Page to design the creature, referred to as Clover. In February 2007, the project was secretly greenlit by Paramount Pictures and produced by Abrams' Bad Robot Productions. Principal photography took place in Los Angeles that same year. During production, the project went under several working titles, including Slusho, Cheese and Greyshot. As part of a viral marketing campaign, a teaser trailer was released ahead of screenings of Transformers without a title attached. The film's official title was revealed in a second teaser trailer attached to screenings of Beowulf. With limited details revealed about the film prior to release, it garnered online speculation, including forums and websites dedicated to uncovering any hidden information about the film. Several tie-ins, including a prequel manga series, were released as part of the film's marketing campaign.

Cloverfield was released on January 18, 2008, and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Reeves' direction and the film's cinéma vérité style narrative. It earned $172 million worldwide at the box office against a $25 million budget. The film served as the first installment of the Cloverfield franchise, followed by 10 Cloverfield Lane in 2016 and The Cloverfield Paradox in 2018. A direct sequel is currently in development.