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Release Date: 18 January, 2008.

The 40^th most searched word on google, Cloverfield, is a 2008 ‘monster movie’ that is being produced by J.J. Abrams, the Emmy award-winning producer of TV shows such as Lost and Alias and films such as Mission Impossible 3 and Armageddon.

The official announcement for this project came in the form of an obscure trailer that played in cinemas mid 2007, when Transformers was released. The trailer featured a handheld camera covering a surprise send-off party for Rob, who apparently, is moving to Japan. The party is abruptly interrupted when there’s an out of the blue minor earthquake. Soon, people start panicking and they move to the terrace of the building for a better view. Seconds later, an explosion can be seen far away, and the debris from this explosion finds its way towards us, smashing into nearby buildings and the terrace.

The cameraman makes a run for it, with the camera still recording. He reaches the street below the house and finds a crowd of people running in one direction. Suddenly, there’s a loud growling sound and something huge comes hurtling towards them from far away, crashing into the street, making all the parked vehicles jump in the air. The camera focuses on the object to reveal that it’s the severed head of the Statue of Liberty. The trailer signed out with “From producer J.J. Abrams” and “In theatres 01.18.08″.

Watch the trailer below:

Pretty soon, everyone wanted in on it. People all over were asking the same questions. What is this movie all about? Is it a monster movie? Is 01.18.08 the movie’s title or is that a release date?

Then, Paramount released this information:“Cloverfield, which revolves around a monster attack in New York as told from the point of view of a small group of people, is being produced by J.J. Abrams. It is being directed by Matt Reeves, who co-created Felicity with Abrams, and is written by Drew Goddard, who has worked with Abrams on Lost and Alias.”Projectcloverfield.com featured excerpts from Hollywood Reporter stated that Paramount green lighted the project under a veil of heavy secrecy in February, about the same time that Abrams agreed to the take over the directing reins of the new Star Trek film. The casting process was just as mysterious. No scripts or even scene pages were sent out; agents who were contacted were simply asked if their client wanted to be in the movie or not. Eventually a cast, made up mostly of relative unknowns, was put together.

The secrecy involved in this production got a lot of people talking. Online. And this is probably what made the project go viral. The first in the line for the virals was www.1-18-08.com. On this flash-based page, there are a few photos that you can see. These photos have an electronic timestamp on them that tells us that they were taken on the very date that the movie is set in. Some photos can be flipped and they have handwritten messages on the back. Pretty soon, other websites that may or may not be related to Cloverfield began popping up. The most prominent ones being www.slusho.jp and www.ethanhaaswasright.com

After a lot of speculation, it was revealed that ethanhaaswasright.com was actually just a website to promote an upcoming game and that it wasn’t related to J.J. Abrams or Cloverfield at all.

And what about slusho? The first impression I got from this website was that it’s just a website for weirdly flavoured slushies, written in weird Japanese style english. But does such a product or company really exist? J.J. Abrams is no stranger to making websites for things that don’t.

Then, I happened to find this image on projectcloverfield.com:

Jackpot. The character in the trailer appears to be wearing a shirt with a slusho on it. So does the relation end there?

Then, all of a sudden, there was a new website that surfaced, www.tagruato.jp. This website, rumoured to be the corporate website of the parent company that manufactures Slusho, was suddenly hacked and defaced, with the message “Tagruato is destroying our oceans.”

Hold the phone. This is obviously J.J. Abrams going wild over his attempts to baffle his online Cloverfield enthusiasts. But before I could finish the sentence “All this over a fictitious slushie?”, unfiction forums, an alternate reality gaming website, had posted something I just didn’t see coming.

Pictures of the Heroes cast members posing with Slushos!

Now, how about that?

That’s when Projectcloverfield.com uncovered news that Greg Grunberg, aka Matt Parkman from Heroes, has been casted in Cloverfield. No details were spared about what kind of role he’ll be playing, but apparently, he’s ‘J.J. Abrams’ lucky charm’.

Then another startling discovery by the guys at unfiction.com – Jamie Lascano, who is supposedly a character in this movie, and who has apparently written a caption on one of the photos on 1-18-08.com, had started a website (of course, this is another genius marketing ploy) where she has uploaded some video messages for her boyfriend, Teddy, who is away saving the world, according to her. This website, jamieandteddy.com has a picture, which can be clicked to reveal a password request (jllovesth, for the curious) which takes us to the videos.

Through this website, we get to know Jamie better and get a first-hand look at her insecurity about her long-distance boyfriend and the kind of job he’s doing. There’s also a mention of a ’cause’ which Teddy has gone for. Lost viewers will find this remarkably similar to the Dharma Foundation.

Now, why, you might ask, is J.J. Abrams and his team going through such elaborate lengths to give us such a mammoth back-story? Speculations all over the internet suggest that this is probably because there probably won’t be enough time to delve into these details in the movie. There are others that seem to think that this is just a way to deviate us from what Cloverfield really is. Lost - Season 04. But speculations could go on forever. And I was just beginning to give up on them.

Then, Trailer Two happened.

With this trailer, J.J. Abrams has finally announced that the movie is titled as Cloverfield and that it will hit theatres on 1-18-08.There’s one thing for sure that I’ve gathered after all this viral information, speculation and brainstorming about the movie. There’s brilliance in viral marketing. Or, in the words of the soldier in the trailer, “Whatever it is, it’s winning.”