While we have all been somewhat patiently waiting for the third installment in the Cloverfield franchise to finally be released, producer JJ Abrams has been very quietly overseeing the filming of the next chapter in the science-fiction series.
Word is coming out that the supernatural WWII thriller Overlord, will actually be released under the Cloverfield franchise banner. ScreenRant first posited the possibility this morning and it looks as if a number of outlets are confirming through their own sources.
Here is what we do know about the film’s plot courtesy of the studios synopsis —
On the eve of D-Day, American paratroopers are dropped behind enemy lines to carry out a mission crucial to the invasion‘s success. But as they approach their target, they begin to realize there is more going on in this Nazi occupied village than a simple military operation. They find themselves fighting against supernatural forces, part of a Nazi experiment.
So how does this film link up with the other films in the Cloverfield franchise? No idea. So far the only real linkage we’ve seen between the first two films has been the fictional company Tagruato. The company has been just a very low key presence in the background of the two films although it has featured more prominently in viral marketing materials for both the two released films and the upcoming God Particle. Given that the Nazis and the Japanese were the Axis Powers during World War Two, there may be some connection there.
A fourth Cloverfield movie being shot pretty much in secret is certainly no stretch of the imagination considering how Abrams and the franchise has operated so far. Both 10 Cloverfield Lane and God Particle started off as fairly low budget genre films at the studio with very little press information being released during their production and with their Cloverfield branding be revealed only fairly late in the game. In fact, 10 Cloverfield Lane filmed under the title The Cellar and it is possible that God Particle will get a name change to Cloverfield Station. Perhaps we can expect a name change for Overlord at some point in the future. Operation: Cloverfield perhaps?
What‘s left unclear, though, is when and where we will see this film. Paramount is in the process of selling The God Particle/Cloverfield Station to Netflix, but is this a one-time transfer of a franchise installment or is Netflix acquiring all future Cloverfield films including Overlord?
