The Cloverfield Paradox type Movie genre Sci-fi

Imagine A Quiet Place, John Krasinski’s new horror film, as a part of the Cloverfield cinematic universe. They have a few commonalities: both are Paramount releases, both maintain the presence of monsters, and both tap the mystery box approach to the marketing campaigns. As it turns out, these elements weren’t lost on the screenwriters behind A Quiet Place, who teased in a recent interview that they toyed with the idea of making the film a Cloverfield sequel.

/Film‘s Ben Pearson first broached the subject with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. “I guess it crossed our mind and we had spoken to our representatives about that possibility,” Beck said. “It was weird timing, though, because when we were writing the script, 10 Cloverfield Lane was at Paramount. We were actually talking to an executive there about this film, and it felt from pitch form that there might be crossover, but when we finally took the final script in to Paramount, they saw it as a totally different movie.”

He clarified that Paramount never thought about “branding” A Quiet Place as a Cloverfield movie, “I think in part because conceptually it was able to stand on its own.”

A Quiet Place, directed by Krasinski, tells of a rural family unit living in silence. They cover walking paths in sand, communicate in sign language, and attempt to dampen the noise in their home because any sound might draw the attention of monstrosities living in the woods.

“One of our biggest fears was this getting swept up into some kind of franchise or repurposed for something like that,” Woods explained. “The reason I say ‘biggest fear’ — we love the Cloverfield movies. They’re excellent. It’s just that as filmgoers, we crave new and original ideas, and we feel like so much of what’s out there is IP. It’s comic books, it’s remakes, it’s sequels. We show up to all of them, we enjoy those movies too, but our dream was always to drop something different into the marketplace, so we feel grateful that Paramount embraced the movie as its own thing.”

Starring Krasinski and wife Emily Blunt, A Quiet Place has been garnering high acclaim from critics since its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival.

Master of horror himself, Stephen King, recently joined the chorus of praise. “A QUIET PLACE is an extraordinary piece of work,” he tweeted. “Terrific acting, but the main thing is the SILENCE, and how it makes the camera’s eye open wide in a way few movies manage.”

The film is now playing in theaters.