Times, they are a changin’. Paramount, once one of the biggest players in Hollywood in the middle of a major streamlining operation. While we just learned they were putting together a Duke Nukem movie, they are largely focusing on blockbusters now with only a handful of releases coming up. And that doesn’t leave much room for anything else, which is why they are looking to unload the long-delayed Cloverfield 3 aka God Particle.
THR reports Paramount is in talks with Netflix to acquire the film, a sequel to the surprising $110M hit, 10 Cloverfield Lane. If you’re curious why that small-budgeted hit would lead to the sequel being shopped around, it’s all about Paramount’s change in strategy since naming a new chairman, according to a source. It’s still weird because both Cloverfield movies have been extremely profitable, although this one is a touch more expensive than the rest at roughly $40M. But the move fits with Paramount’s recent decision to sell Netflix international distribution to Alex Garland’s sci-fi film, Annihilation.
God Particle, which has a script by Oren Uziel that was retrofitted into the Cloverfield universe follows stars David Oyelowo, Ziyi Zhang, Daniel Bruhl, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris O’Dowd and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, follows a team of astronauts on an American space station that find themselves stranded when a particle accelerator accident causes Earth to vanish. Earlier this month the release date was bumped to April 20th, just the latest in a string of moves since its original date in February 2017. There’s a chance that Netflix just goes ahead and releases the movie early if they acquire it, adds a report by Deadline.
That said, the Julius Onah-directed film still needs work, apparently, and with Bad Robot producer J.J. Abrams gearing up for Star Wars 9 he’s unavailable to help. A viral marketing campaign has already launched which you can check out here and here, but that stuff is going to mean a lot less if there’s no theatrical release. And that does appear to be where things are headed right now.
