J.J. Abrams development company, Bad Robot, optioned the script “The Cellar” from writers Josh Campbell and Matthew Stuecken. They hired Damien Chazelle to rewrite the script, intensifying the relationships and situations. Chazelle was offered the chance to direct, but had to turn it down when he got the financing to expand his short film into his feature debut, Whiplash. Dan Trachtenberg was ultimately hired, and from here went on to re-energize the Predator franchise with multiple successful films. What many people working on The Cellar didn’t know is that Bad Robot had a secret plan to change the nuclear attack in the script to an alien invasion and make the film a sequel to Cloverfield.
There was no need to directly link the two films together. 10 Cloverfield Lane is a claustrophobic thriller with a rising star turn by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and a reminder of what John Goodman can do with a shifty character and room to work. (John Gallagher Jr. is solid, but he doesn’t spark like the his co-stars.) The script has a lot of surprises to where what’s happening below ground is more interesting than anything that might be happening above. Of course, eventually the mystery must be solved, and that creates a tonal change large enough to feel like a different movie. It’s not bad, but the big cinematic climax can’t compete with the tension between the three cast in their close quarters.
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