Cloverfield got two spinoff films — 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane and 2018’s The Cloverfield Paradox — but neither one really continued the events of the original movie, which became a monster hit when it was unleashed upon unsuspecting audiences in the winter of 2008. One would have thought the franchise’s brand was not in the title — hell the movie’s famous teaser trailer didn’t even mention the title — but in the notion of giant monsters and a found footage concept. Oddly, neither spinoff maintained much of either of those elements.

It would appear that someone got wise to this notion. The Hollywood Reporter says that Bad Robot and Paramount are now developing the first direct sequel to Cloverfield that would follow the events of the first movie, in which a group of friends tries to escape from the island of Manhattan after its attacked by a mysterious creature. They’ve chosen “rising British scribe Joe Barton to pen the script for the project, which, unlike its predecessor, will not be in the found footage format, according to sources.” Barton was also recently selected as the showrunner for HBO Max’s spinoff series to the upcoming The Batman movie focused on the Gotham City Police Department.

Found footage movies aren’t nearly as hot as they were in the mid and late 2000s, which could be one reason why the two Cloverfield spinoffs didn’t employ the technique either. It does beg the question: What is a Cloverfield sequel if it’s not found footage? Just another big monster movie? Presumably Joe Barton has a more intriguing answer than that.

Gallery — Great Movies That Became Terrible Franchises:

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