William N. Law Blog: Dan Trachtenberg Talks Possible ‘Cloverfield Lane’ Sequel, ‘Crime Of The Century’ & ‘Y: The Last Man’

Monday, March 14, 2016

Dan Trachtenberg Talks Possible ‘Cloverfield Lane’ Sequel, ‘Crime Of The Century’ & ‘Y: The Last Man’

10 Cloverfield Lane opened this weekend to an estimated $25.2 million domestically, which a huge success considering the film’s low budget price tag. So fans are already wondering if Bad Robot could end up giving the film a proper sequel. When I chatted with 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg late last week, I talked to him about the possibility of a 10 Cloverfield Lane sequel.

And everyone is wondering what the filmmaker might be doing next, so we talk a little bit about that — we learn about his time travel heist film Crime of the Century which is being developed at Universal and also learn what happened to the Y: The Last Man movie and find out what his film version of the comic book series might have been.

Warning: If you haven’t yet seen 10 Cloverfield Lane, skip to the next question (Inception image) as we very vaguely discuss the ending possibilities of the film.

I think it fair to say that 10 Cloverfield Lane leaves room for more story and a possible sequel, but would the filmmaker even be interested in returning for another installment? I asked him, If given an opportunity, would he like to make a sequel to this film, and here is what he said:

Honestly, I always fantasized when making [a sequel] and even before we had shot the movie like oh my God, how cool would it be to make the next one? And the way that Aliens is to Alien, you know. But or it could be a different genre. It could be a whole different movie, but with the same badass protagonist that was forged in the flames of this one. But I also feel like it would be equally badass if there wasn’t a sequel to this. Like there’s just something so cool about the idea that it, that you’ve been on this adventure with this character and she makes a decision at the end and we know what that decision means, but don’t ever actually get a chance to see what that decision, what becomes of it. I think is equally cool. Like yeah, we know it feels like this was very much an origin story. This is all you’re gonna get.

And would it be called 11 Cloverfield Lane? Dan laughed at the idea.

Probably not called 11 Cloverfield Lane. ‘Cause it would be really ironic if she, the next place she heads to is just the next house over.

I kind of love the idea of a really bad ridiculous Jaws: The Revenge version of the sequel, where she just happens to ends up at 11 Cloverfield Lane with another seemingly crazy guy with a bunker… or maybe this time a safe room. Okay, maybe the idea is better left as a joke or maybe a fake VHS movie on the shelf in Howard’s bunker.

Following the release of his viral short film Portal: No Escape, Universal Pictures and screenwriter-turned-producer Chris Morgan (Wanted, Fast Five, 47 Ronin) quickly acquired Dan Trachtenberg‘s time travel action heist film Crime of the Century. Trachtenberg has been actively developing the idea into a movie since the 2011 acquisition with screenwriter Daniel Kunka (12 Rounds), and later Annabelle scribe Gary Doberman. Whats going on with Crime of the Century? And what is the film even about as not much information has been released about the project. Dan gave us an update:

Crime of the Century is a badass time travel heist movie. And I’m desperate to make it. It’s still in development. Hopefully now that I’ve finished up with this, I could swing back into that and I would love to make that next. It’s a really original, very unique, exciting action movie that’s as smart as it is fun. So I would hope that I get a chance to make it.

The project was announced in 2011, before he started work on 10 Cloverfield Lane (then titled Valencia). So why has it taken so long to get it going? Trachtenberg reminds us that when he sold the project to Universal, he did so based on just the mind-bending idea — they didn’t have a script.

Writing, just writing. Time travel movies are very complicated. … We just pitched the story. And I had a little sizzle reel made for it. And that’s what sold. Just the idea. And so yeah, we’ve been working on it ever since. Hopefully we’ll be able to get back into it.

I’ve seen many people predicting on social media that following this impressive feature debut that Trachtenberg would be snapped up for a Marvel movie or a future Star Wars film. As much as I’d love to see a Trachtenberg-directed Star Wars movie, I would actually rather see what Crime of the Century could be. I’m a big time-travel movie fanatic and what I’ve heard of his concept sounds fascinating and unprecedented.

Learn about Dan Trachtenberg’s Y: The Last Man movie, on the next page.