Park City is currently playing host to the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, an annual celebration of independent storytellers and best-in-class filmmakers.
Such a concentrated cross-section of the industry naturally fuels earnest and often intriguing conversation about the global film landscape, with one or two rumors thrown in there for good measure. Case in point: Jeff Sneider of The Tracking Board claims to have overheard a Sundance attendee saying Cloverfield 3 (AKA God Particle) is headed to Netflix.
It would certainly explain the numerous delays; Bad Robot’s third Cloverfield movie has been postponed on three separate occasions, eventually arriving at its current release date of April 20th. Not only that, but as things stand, Julius Onah’s starry space oddity is poised to go up against the Dwayne Johnson-fronted Rampage, so we wouldn’t be too surprised to learn that Bad Robot plans to skip theaters altogether in favor of a Netflix release.
It would be a major coup for the online streamer, too, as the cryptic Cloverfield universe has slowly cemented its place as the strangest Hollywood film series of modern times. It’s also beginning to show signs of life after years spent in hibernation, and Bad Robot’s fledgling viral marketing campaign is as strange and mysterious as you’d expect.
Scrambled video logs? Check. Cryptic story clues? You betcha’. The so-called God Particle? Well, kind of. Despite Paramount’s original listing, we’re now learning that the upcoming threequel will release as Cloverfield Station…on Netflix.
Overheard on the ground at Sundance: New Cloverfield movie may be heading to Netflix. No confirmation yet and I'm heading into a movie. Just passing along, since the delays HAVE been suspicious…
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) January 23, 2018
In case you’re curious, here’s a reminder of the official logline, with many believing that Cloverfield Station is a direct nod to the ISS-like laboratory on which Onah’s thriller takes place.
A crew aboard a space station finds itself alone after a scientific experiment causes the Earth to disappear. When a space shuttle appears, the space station’s crew must determine if it is carrying friends or foes.
Regardless of its title or platform of choice, Cloverfield 3 ought to be with us on April 20th – you know, providing Bad Robot isn’t forced to delay Julius Onah’s space oddity one final time. We live in hope.