What might seem like an ordinary casting story on the surface could be much more than that, thanks to the tendency forJ.J. Abramsand his production banner Bad Robot to keep secrets when it comes to their movie productions, especially those tied into theCloverfielduniverse. So when it was announced earlier today that the Paramount Pictures production of the World War II filmOverlordwas aiming to kick off in May, with some familiar names attached, we opted to take a closer look.
Thanks to aheads-up tweetfrom The Tracking Board’sJeff Sneider, we have word thatOverlordwill be addingJovan Adepo(Fences) andWyatt Russell(22 Jump Street) as the leads of the mysterious film. Directed byJulius Avery(Son of a Gun) and scripted byBilly Ray(Captain Phillips) andMark L. Smith(The Revenant),Overlordwill follow a group of American paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day. On the approach to their target–a village under Nazi occupation–they start to realize there there’s more to this place than a military operation.
Overlordsounds like a straight-up wartime drama with a “mystery box” twist, and it’s that latter part which is in lockstep with Abrams' brand. Producing alongside Abrams isLindsey Weber, who also produced10 CloverfieldLane,so the Clover-verse team is present and accounted for. Currently, that shared universe also includes theCloverfield IMAX Moviewhich opens October 27th of this year, and the previously announced film known asGod Particle, directed byJulius Onahand starringDavid OyelowoandGugu Mbatha-Raw. That film will track “a team of astronauts who make a terrifying discovery that challenges all they know about the fabric of reality, as they desperately fight for survival”, but it wasmysteriously pulled from the release calendarlate last year when it had been slotted for a February 2017 release.
Our best guess at the moment is thatGod Particlewill reemerge as the October release, perhaps with a new title or perhaps not, and thatOverlordwill be the 2018 Clover-verse release, since Abrams & Co. planned to release a new film in that loosely shared universe each year.
More interesting than all of the shared cinematic stuff is the talent incubator that Abrams' Clover-verse productions have become.Matt Reevescame out of the TV biz to helmCloverfield, going on to directLet Me In, films in thePlanet of the Apesfranchise reboot, and is gearing up for a little thing calledThe Batman.Dan Trachtenbergnow has a Clover-verse film on the filmography of his relatively young career, and Nigerian-born Onah (The Girl Is in Trouble) will soon join him, possibly alongside Avery, ifOverlordis indeed a Clover-verse joint. If it is, it would be the earliest story in the shared timeline, perhaps answering some questions as to all this chaos has come about. Time will tell, but Abrams and Bad Robot have too much fun messing with our heads to stop now. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!
