Tag Archives: Bad Robot

Surprise! Bad Robot presents ’10 Cloverfield Lane’, a “blood relative” to 2008’s found-footage monster movie (Teaser inside)

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J.J.’s done it again. Seemingly out of nowhere comes some thing; it’s a new Bad Robot-produced film titled 10 Cloverfield Lane. When I first stumbled upon this deliciously mysterious teaser trailer I thought to myself along with everybody else, “IT’S A SEQUEL TO J.J.’s MONSTER MOVIE CLOVERFIELD!” Not quite. Though the word “Cloverfield” is in the title and the teaser certainly alludes to some thing scary existing in the outside world, the Star Wars director released the following statement to Collider that attempts to clear that up:

“The idea came up a long time ago during production,” explained Abrams. “We wanted to make it a blood relative of Cloverfield. The idea was developed over time. We wanted to hold back the title for as long as possible.”

In a nutshell, writers Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken collaborated on penning a script a few years back tentatively titled The Cellar. It followed a woman who, in the aftermath of surviving a car wreck, finds herself trapped underground in a bomb shelter with a man who claims to have saved her life from a nuclear attack that destroyed the surrounding area above ground. Nuclear attack or… the Cloverfield monster! J.J. and his Bad Robot production house got involved with The Cellar when Paramount bought the script. The movie’s code name changed to Valencia to keep a lid on J.J.’s Cloverfield connection plans that apparently started to brew shortly after he signed on to executive produce it. It’s massively impressive how Paramount & Bad Robot were able to keep all of this a secret until the trailer dropped.

The teaser for 10 Cloverfield Lane (embedded after the break) first surfaced in front of Michael Bay’s Benghazi film 13 Hours, in an eerily similar fashion to the way Cloverfield‘s found-footage trailer debuted in theatres with Bay’s Transformers in 2008. It stars John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), and John Gallagher, Jr. (The Newsroom). Abrams produces with Lindsey Weber. Dan Trachtenberg, the massive talent behind the viral short film Portal: No Escape, makes his directorial debut. Despite their enthusiasm for making a direct Cloverfield sequel at some point, the original movie’s director Matt Reeves and writer Drew Goddard are not involved in this project.

I’ve been waiting for a true sequel to Cloverfield ever since I walked out of theatre in 2008 and got lost down the rabbit hole online trying to piece together clues pertaining to The Monster’s origins. Do Slusho and Tagruato ring any bells? Anyway. I find this whole “blood relative” idea to be incredibly intriguing. New survivors, new location (look at the poster pasted above; I don’t think we’re in New York City), new shooting style (it appears as though Trachtenberg is ditching Reeve’s found-footage shaky cam presentation here). The idea that 10 Cloverfield Lane is not a direct sequel to the original but rather set in the same universe as it offers the creative team a new avenue to explore the intensity of it all. If this teaser is any indication of what to expect, we are going to be getting an intimate character piece dealing with themes of trust and manipulation.

“Don’t open the door! You’re going to get all of us killed!” screams Goodman’s character as Winstead’s female protagonist unlocks the bunker’s door. What does she see? A nuclear wasteland? The Monster? Some thing entirely new? “Monsters come in many forms,” reads the poster’s tagline. The Mystery Box just arrived on your doorstep.

10 Cloverfield Lane opens March 11, 2016. Continue reading Surprise! Bad Robot presents ’10 Cloverfield Lane’, a “blood relative” to 2008’s found-footage monster movie (Teaser inside) →

James Franco travels back in time to save JFK in ‘11.22.63,’ the next series from J.J. Abrams & Stephen King

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J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot (Lost, Fringe, Person of Interest) aren’t tipping toes into the world of subscription-based streaming; with 11.22.63, the ubiquitous storyteller is diving in head-first. Abrams’ latest TV series is coming to Hulu in 2016 and it’s based on Stephen King’s 2011 novel of the same name. King (Under the Dome) also serves as executive producer. Here’s the official logline, time travel included.

Hulu Original series 11.22.63 is a thriller in which high school English teacher Jake Epping travels back in time to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — but his mission is threatened by Lee Harvey Oswald, falling in love and the past itself, which doesn’t want to be changed.

Movie actor James Franco, best known for stoner comedies such as This is The End and Pineapple Express, takes a dramatic turn as lead character Jake Epping and the supporting cast includes Chris Cooper (The Bourne Identity), Josh Duhamel (Battle Creek), T.R. Knight (Grey’s Anatomy), Cherry Jones (24), Sarah Gadon, Lucy Fry, George MacKay, and Daniel Webber.

The series’ first teaser trailer rests above and packed inside the 30-second clip are more than enough tantalizing glimpses to appropriately whet your appetite. “I’m gonna tell you something that’s gonna seem crazy,” says an off-screen narrator. “If you go through there, it’s 1960.” Chills is the proper response.

Prepare for you next binge as 11.22.63 rolls out on Hulu on February 15, 2016. Happy President’s Day.

J.J. Abrams & ‘Infinity Blade’ developer collaborate on new video game ‘SPYJINX’

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Play video games? Dig the curious mind of director/producer J.J. Abrams? Well, here’s an excitingly fresh piece of news for you. Abrams (LOST, Star Wars)–who previously struck a deal with Valve–is teaming up with Infinity Blade developer ChAIR to produce a game called SPYJINX. Here’s what we know so far:

Powered by Unreal Engine 4, SPYJINX is a unique mix of action strategy gameplay, dynamic world building and RPG character development – all set in a thrilling, treacherous world of espionage.

As is tradition in the world of Bad Robot, juicy details surrounding the upcoming title are being closely guarded for now. SPYJINX is expected to roll out on PCs and mobile devices during its 2016 launch, and the plan is for the game to hit consoles sometime thereafter. Gamers are invited to sign up for the beta now to help the developers shape the game and work out the kinks.

Watch Abrams and ChAIR founder and creative director Donald Mustard discuss their new collaborative effort in the video hanging here. As more information spills around SPYJINX, you’ll know where to find it.

Doug Dorst & J.J. Abrams put the “S.” in “S.earch” with new promotional campaign for their mystery novel

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The mysterious S. videos continue! Though, this clip is more straightforward than the last. Have you picked up a copy of Doug Dorst & J.J. Abrams’ novel S.? If not, now’s the time to jump in. In addition to briefly discussing the inspiration behind their book, in the video embedded above Dorst and Abrams explain that they’ve signed five copies and have hidden them in five different cities around the nation. They dare you to find one, read it, and then ditch it for someone else to discover (or keep it, that’s entirely up to you). Does this concept sound familiar? It should: D&A are borrowing the “Send Wonder” concept imagined by artist/magician Jamie D. Grant; he previously collaborated with Abrams’ Bad Robot and magic destination Theory 11 to create the Mystery Bottle. Grant’s “Send Wonder” campaign is all about spreading inspiration with the world through sharing and random discovery. Want to be one of the lucky five to score a signed copy of S.? Follow Dorst on Twitter where the author will be dropping clues to their whereabouts; first stop: NYC.

Bad Robot & Theory 11’s latest collab inspires you to “Send Wonder”

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On Friday Bad Robot, again in collaboration with Theory 11, revealed a new “Mystery” product that serves as an extension of the previously announced Mystery Box. The new Mystery Bottle is an art piece handcrafted by artist and magician Jamie D. Grant. Theory 11 describes it as an “impossible object.” Have you ever seen a meticulously handcrafted ship stuffed inside a tiny bottle? Grant took this idea and made it all his own by “impossibly” inserting a regular deck of cards inside an unaltered solid glass milk bottle. Look at the image above; anyone can see that the deck of cards is clearly wider than the mouth of the bottle. You are free to shake the bottle as much as you want but you’ll find that the deck won’t budge and cannot be removed without breaking the bottle. Grant’s secret method remains a mystery of the best kind: one that truly inspires.

Following in the footsteps of J.J. Abrams’ TED talk that laid the groundwork for his Mystery Box, Grant too shares his story and inspiration behind his card deck in a bottle trick. Watch his brief yet stimulating TED presentation here and learn all about how his creation came to be and how his “Send Wonder” campaign altered his life and others for the better.

Grant’s Mystery Bottle–containing a sealed deck of Mystery Box Playing Cards embossed with the signature “?” symbol, naturally–is available for purchase today for $100 at Theory 11. 826 National, a non-profit that promotes creative writing in schools and workshops around the USA, is involved as $10 per bottle sold benefits the organization.

J.J. Abrams shares his inspired “Mystery Box”

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If you haven’t seen J.J. Abrams’ TED Talk from March 2007, stop what you’re doing and watch it now. In it, the prolific filmmaker talks about his “mystery box.” When he was young his grandfather Harry Kelvin would take him to a magic store in New York City called Lou Tannen’s Magic. One day his grandfather bought him Tannen’s Mystery Magic Box, a box embossed with a giant question mark filled with $50 worth of magic tricks for the low price of 15 bucks. To this day, Abrams’ mystery box remains sealed and it sits on a shelf in his office at his production company Bad Robot. He reveals his reasons behind not opening it and keeping it after all these years: it represents his grandfather–an important figure in his life–and the notion of infinite possibility.

“…It represents infinite possibility. It represents hope. It represents potential. And what I love about this box, and what I realize I sort of do in whatever it is that I do, is I find myself drawn to infinite possibility and that sense of potential. And I realize that mystery is the catalyst for imagination… I started to think that maybe there are times when mystery is more important than knowledge.”

Think about to some of Abrams’ most prominent creations. Lost was one giant mystery box full of potential and engrossing enigma. Did we ever really need to know what the Island was or even represented? In the end, no, we did not; Lost was about a group of plane crash survivors finding salvation and hope in each other. Look at Cloverfield; Abrams unleashed an exciting campaign leading up to that monster movie by not revealing what the mysterious otherworldly creature actually looked like. And then there’s the dearly departed Fringe; that show was literally about infinite possibilities and holding onto hope in the worst of times.

Seven years after introducing that box on stage at TED, Abrams is releasing his very own mystery box for you to put up on your shelf. Bad Robot teamed up with Theory 11, an online source for high-grade magic products, to create and produce a handcrafted, wooden Mystery Lockbox. It’s made of 100-year-old reclaimed wood, the lid is iron-branded with the Mystery Box emblem (it’s a giant question mark undoubtedly inspired by Tannen’s box), and each box sold is locked with an alphanumeric combination lock. The Lockbox includes a letterpressed note from J.J. Abrams enclosed in a kraft paper envelope stamped with a black wax seal. The main contents of the box are 12 decks of Mystery Box Playing Cards and each deck is individually wrapped in letterpressed kraft paper. Art direction for the box and deck of cards are by Abrams and Theory 11’s Jonathan Bayme.

The Lockbox with the letter and 12 decks of cards is on sale now for $149.95. The cards are also sold separately at $9.95 per deck. Bad Robot will donate $1 per deck purchased to 826 National, a non-profit dedicated to promoting creative writing in schools and workshops around the America.

Now the decision remains: do you open the box or do you remain inspired by the mystery inside like Abrams does with his? Abrams, in his letter to Mystery Box owners, puts it like this: “The choice to open the box, or not, is yours.” Continue reading J.J. Abrams shares his inspired “Mystery Box” →

Mystery, solved: J.J. Abrams’ “Stranger” teaser revealed to be a novel

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On the 19th of August J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot tweeted a link to a mysterious YouTube clip titled “Stranger.” The beautifully scored video narrated by an older gentleman told a brief story about a man emerging from the sea under a blanket of stars. At the very end the words “Soon he will know” appeared and then quickly vanished. Now, we know.

Bad Robot’s Twitter account spilled the beans with part 2 of the “Stranger” video titled “S. (From J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst – Bad Robot Productions).” This clip (embedded after the break) resumes where the last left off (narrator and all) and introduces a typewriter and a murder mystery. So no, this is not a teaser for the next Star Wars movie or Abrams’ upcoming NBC drama Believe or his adaptation of Rod Serling’s The Stop Along the Way. These videos are promoting a new novel conceived and developed by Abrams and written by Doug Dorst.

“S. is the chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don’t understand, and it is also Abrams and Dorst’s love letter to the written word.”

Abrams told EW: “I could not be more excited for people to get their hands on this book. It is difficult to describe because while it is a compelling mystery and love story, it is also much more than that. The work that everyone has done on S. is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Frankly, I’m amazed it was even possible to do this project at all.”

The book–which comes complete with newspaper clippings, a napkin with a hand-drawn map, and other special material to enhance the reading experience–hits store shelves October 29; preorder yours SoonYouWillKnow.com. For a peek at the layered synopsis, skip after the break. Continue reading Mystery, solved: J.J. Abrams’ “Stranger” teaser revealed to be a novel →

J.J. Abrams & Jonathan Nolan set up ‘Westworld’ adaptation at HBO

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Here is a TV project to keep a very close eye on. J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan (the auspices behind CBS’ Person of Interest) are adapting Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi thriller Westworld into a TV series for HBO. This marks the first foray into pay cable TV for Abrams’ Bad Robot production company. And like all things Bad Robot, the project is shrouded in mystery; this official logline will have to do for now: “Set in the amazing world dreamt up by Michael Crichton, Westworld is a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.” The movie, which starred Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, and James Brolin, took place at a Western-themed amusement park rampant with androids who appeared nearly indistinguishable from humans. Watch the trailer here. Westworld went on to spawn a sequel Futureworld (1976) and even a short-lived TV series Beyond Westworld.

Nolan is set to direct the pilot (HBO has already agreed to a pilot production commitment!) and he will pen the script with writer Lisa Joy (Burn Notice). Abrams, Nolan, Joy, Bryan Burk, and Jerry Weintraub will executive produce.

[Via Deadline]

Ready, set, theorize! J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions teases mysterious new project

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J.J. Abrams has another super-secret project up his sleeve. On the 13th of August his production company Bad Robot tweeted out a link to a mysterious video titled “Stranger” hosted on BR’s newly minted YouTube channel. The minute-and-seven-second video, like most everything Abrams does, is shrouded in a giant blanket of mystery and intrigue. With no press release to work off, viewers are forced to speculate and theorize.

Backed by a beautiful, piano-led score likely helmed by Abrams’ go-to composer Michael Giacchino, “Stranger” sets up a starry night scene where a long-haired man emerges from the sea. The visuals come to a screeching halt when a menacing looking man whose mouth is stitched up takes over the frame. A narrator recites the following words: “He arrived knowing nothing of himself. Who is he? Soon he will know. Because what begins at the water shall end there. And what ends there, shall once more begin. This is what happens: men become lost, men vanish, men are erased, and reborn.” At the very end, the words “Soon he will know” begin vanishing one by one.

After racking my brain on this one, a few theories surface to the top. First, as everyone well knows, J.J. is currently working on reigniting the Star Wars franchise with Episode VII; though a viral campaign to get the buzz going around this highly anticipated film would be exciting, I just don’t see it here. The starry sky is a subtle hint, but everything else just doesn’t make sense for it to be SW related.

Another project under J.J.’s belt includes the upcoming NBC supernatural drama Believe but again, this black-and-white visual simply doesn’t line up with that show’s pitch. However, a slight clue lingers here, too; Jake McLaughlin who plays wrongfully imprisoned death row inmate Tate on the show sports a shaggy mane of hair just like the man who comes from the sea. But Believe‘s main star is a little girl named Bo who has super powers that need protecting and this teaser sheds no light on that whatsoever.

Now it’s true that this may very well be an extremely early tease for The Stop Along the Way, Rod Serling’s final screenplay whose rights were recently sold to Bad Robot. Little is known about the project initially imagined by the Twilight Zone creator so it’s difficult to read into this any further.

I’ve saved the most believable theory for last. You may or may not know this, but Abrams is getting in on the books business. That’s right–he conceived and developed a story written by award-winning author Doug Dorst (Alive in Necropolis). And get this–the name of the novel is S. As in “Stranger,” as in “Soon he will know.” Now, read the novel’s synopsis:

At the core of this multilayered literary puzzle of love and adventure is a book of mysterious provenance. In the margins, another tale unfolds—through the hand-scribbled notes, questions, and confrontations of two readers. Between the pages, online, and in the real world, you’ll find evidence of their interaction, ephemera that bring this tale vividly to life.

S. is being released by Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company on October 29, 2013 and according to a press release. “Abram’ production company, Bad Robot, will be promoting the book leading up to and at publication time.” The video titled “Stranger” could easily be the start of a marketing campaign for this book. The synopsis hints that the story will expand its tale across various forms of media including the Internet. Until further evidence reveals itself, I think we having a winning theory here. It’s perfect, really. Viewers are clamoring to the idea that this video must be hyping a film or TV series when in reality it’s introducing Bad Robot fans to an entirely different form of entertainment: books!

Share your theories in the comment section below as we await the next “Stranger” tease that surely must be imminent.

J.J. Abrams and Valve’s Gabe Newell strike a deal to produce movies and games based on their respective projects [Update: video]

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At this year’s D.I.C.E. summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain), co-founder of game developer Valve conversed with filmmaker J.J. Abrams about collaborating on future projects. Gamers and sci-fi fanatics alike, perk up. Newell and Abrams have expressed their interest in bringing some of Valve’s most popular titles–Half-Life and Portal, specifically–to the big screen. “We’re going to try and figure out if we can make a Half-Life movie or a Portal movie together,” said Newell. Additionally, Abrams said that he’d be interesting in working with Valve to create video games inspired by Bad Robot films. Apparently this partnership has been in the making for awhile. “We sort of reached the point where we decided that we needed to do more than talk,” Newell admitted. Though details beyond these are sparse, this is something to definitely be excited about and when more comes through the pipeline you’ll know.

Update: The exciting announcement laid out above came at the very end of a rich 20-minute conversation during which the Bad Robot and Valve founders discussed storytelling methods in movies and video games. At first the two make friendly jabs at each other’s work but quickly the back-and-forth evolves into a stimulating discussion about the importance of the relationship between the viewer/player and the on-screen experience. Watch the full clip courtesy of D.I.C.E. after the break.

[Via Engadget; Joystiq] Continue reading J.J. Abrams and Valve’s Gabe Newell strike a deal to produce movies and games based on their respective projects [Update: video] →

FOX orders futuristic drama from J.H. Wyman & J.J. Abrams [Update: Another Abrams pilot a-go at NBC]

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With Fringe in his rearview mirror, showrunner and sometimes writer and director J.H. Wyman has a new drama at FOX to work on. Today FOX ordered to pilot an hourlong drama from Wyman and J.J. Abrams, the same auspices that brought us Walter Bishop and the rest of the Fringe family. The untitled project is being produced by Abrams’ production company Bad Robot in collaboration with Warner Bros. TV. It’s being described as “an action-packed buddy cop show set in a near future when all LAPD officers are partnered with highly evolved humanlike androids.” Yeah, count me in. Wyman is writing the script and serving as executive producer, a title he shares with Abrams, Bryan Burk, and Kathy Lingg. After the script is locked in and casting choices are made, the pilot will be made and if all goes well we’ll have another Abrams/Wyman futuristic drama on the air in the fall.

Update: Mere moments after wrapping this post news broke that another pilot headlined by J.J. Abrams was ordered by NBC. (After landing the Star Wars directing gig and two pilots at two of the major broadcast networks, somebody is having the best week ever.) This project also falls under the Bad Robot/Warner Bros. TV banners and Abrams is working closely with Alfonso Cuarón (director of Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban). It’s working title is Believe and the script is currently being penned by Cuarón and Mark Friedman (Home of the Brave, The Forgotten). Believe is about “the unlikely relationship between a young girl in possession of a great gift/powers — which will come into their own in seven years — and a man sprung from prison who has been tasked with protecting her from the evil elements that hunt her power.” Abrams, Cuarón, Friedman, and Bryan Burk are executive producing. Cuarón is on tap to direct.

Trailer: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

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Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt in the fourth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Ghost Protocol is directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles). Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg reprise as Luther Stickell and Benji Dunn, respectively, and Jeremy Renner, Josh Holloway (Lost‘s Sawyer), Anil Kapoor, Paula Patton, Vladimir Mashkov, Michael Nyqvist, and Lea Seydoux join the cast. M:I 4 is a Bad Robot Production; J.J. Abrams produced the film (with Cruise and Paula Wagner) and co-wrote it with André Nemec and Josh Appelbaum (these guys previously worked with Abrams on Alias).

Here’s a synopsis that’s making rounds across the ‘Net: This is not just another mission. The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in a global terrorist bombing plot. Ghost Protocol is initiated and Ethan Hunt and his rogue new team must go undercover to clear their organization’s name. No help, no contact, off the grid. You have never seen a mission grittier and more intense than this.

The trailer, in a word, is awesomesauce. It’s action-packed, thrilling, and sexy–a great mix if you ask me. And how insane is that final sequence we’re left with? Cruise actually scaled Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, to get the shot. Plus the theme song, it never gets old.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol hits standard and IMAX theatres on December 16, 2011.