Paramount and Bad Robot caught most everyone off-guard when, just a couple months before its theatrical release, the studios revealed a trailer for 10 Cloverfield Lane: a film that had gone under such titles as Valencia, prior to being revealed as part of the Cloverfield “universe”. For related reasons, movie buffs have suspected that God Particle - an apparently standalone genre film that is currently being developed by Bad Robot - will likewise prove to be tied to the Cloverfield franchise, ever since news of the project first emerged.
Reports have since emerged claiming that God’s Particle is indeed part of the Cloverfield brand and that Bad Robot plans to continue expanding the Cloverfield universe with even more films down the line. The fact that 10 Cloverfield Lane was a Cloverfield movie was kept from its cast throughout production on the film - and assuming that the reports about God Particle are accurate, it sounds as though that practice is being carried over to the third Cloverfield film.
God Particle costar Gugu Mbatha-Raw was interviewed by Screen Crush about her role in John Madden’s upcoming legal drama/thriller, Miss Sloane, and was asked about the reports stating that God Particle is a Cloverfield movie. She replied as follows:
I actually have no idea. That is news to me. When I did the project it was a total standalone sci-fi, space thriller. So I couldn’t tell you how it’s connected. I don’t know if that’s just a rumor.
10 Cloverfield Lane’s star Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as noted by Screen Crush, has revealed that she didn’t know that she had even worked on a Cloverfield film, until (literally) an hour before the 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer was released. That’s a testament to the standalone nature of the project and how it works fine on its own, even before any Cloverfield connections (either plot-related and/or thematic in nature) are taken into account. Based on Mbatha-Raw’s comments, it sounds as though God Particle is following in its predecessor’s footsteps in that respect - something that certainly doesn’t read as being a bad approach to take either, based on how 10 Cloverfield Lane turned out.
God Particle is being directed by Julius Onah (The Girl Is in Trouble) from a script by Doug Jung (Star Trek Beyond) and Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street). It reportedly revolves around a U.S. space station crew who witness an accident involving a Hadron collider that causes the Earth to vanish and leaves them stranded, with only a foreign space team to turn to for assistance. One popular theory among Cloverfield fans is that, secretly, the disappearance of the Earth is connected to the events that transpired at the conclusion of 10 Cloverfield Lane. But, seeing as the first two Cloverfield movies didn’t connect in such a direct fashion, this is one God Particle theory that might not pan out.
However God Particle ultimately does (or does not) connect to Cloverfield, there’s certainly more to recommend the film beyond its ties to a franchise. Besides being an original movie with an intriguing premise, God Particle boasts some intriguing talent behind the camera - in addition to a talented and genuinely diverse acting ensemble that, in addition to Gugu Mbatha-Raw, includes David Oyelowo (Queen of Katwe), Daniel Brühl (Captain America: Civil War), Elizabeth Debicki (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), Chris O’Dowd (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children) and Ziyi Zhang (The Grandmaster), among others.
God Particle opens in U.S. theaters on February 24th, 2017.
Source: Screen Crush
