By Ben Travis | Posted 24 Jan 2018

After attacks on the Statue of Liberty and rural Louisiana, the next Cloverfield film could be targeting a new destination to wreak havoc in — the digital-only domain of Netflix. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the third film in the sci-fi monster anthology might skip the cinema altogether and go straight to the streaming service in a deal with Paramount.

After the success (and surprise) of 10 Cloverfield Lane in 2016, the next installment in the J.J. Abrams-led series was set in motion under the working title God Particle. It’s thought that the film has a higher budget than previous Cloverfield titles, with the likes of David Oyelowo, Daniel Bruhl and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the cast. With Paramount boss Jim Gianopulos said to be looking at the profitability of cinematic releases in the studio's current slate, the monster movie may be destined for a non-theatrical launch.

Paramount previously inked a deal with Netflix for Annihilation, Alex Garland’s directorial follow-up to Ex_Machina. The next Cloverfield was initially pencilled in for February, before being moved back to April 20. If the deal does go through, it’s unknown whether the release date will remain the same on Netflix. For now, nothing has been signed — but a big-budget sci-fi anthology would certainly be a good fit for the home of Black Mirror.

After the first Cloverfield took a shaky-cam view of a monster attack on Manhattan and 10 Cloverfield Lane focused on the inhabitants of a bunker in the wake of a monster apocalypse, God Particle is said to take place on a space station. Presumably with monsters. We’ll know that for sure when the film arrives, whether on Netflix or in the good old pictures.

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