Monday, December 17, 2007

Michael Stahl-David Interviews

Michael Stahl-David, who plays Rob Hawkins in Cloverfield, was interviewed by MTV Movie News, and revealed some interesting information about Beth and the Monster.

... "Then there's Beth [Odette Yustman], [and] I've always felt like there's something there between us," he explained. "We've been friends for a long time, but whenever I'm single, she's been seeing somebody and vice versa. We've never really connected, until a few weeks before the tape begins to roll — but I'm leaving, so it was just going to end where it was."
...
We did, however, learn that the monster is not named in the movie ("We took to calling it Clover ... when the movie comes out, people are gonna name it")...


MTV: 'Cloverfield' Star Speaks At Last, Shedding Light On Secret J.J. Abrams Flick

UPDATE: Here's another interview from IESB.net:

... Rob is a 20-something guy who is not a very extraordinary guy. He kind of has amounted to about as much as people thought he would. But now he’s got this great offer for a job in Japan so he’s gonna leave his friends and this girl that he’s always kind of been in love with but has been too afraid to do anything about and go to Japan ... When catastrophe strikes, things become clear kind of quickly what’s important to him. Then he spends the rest of this movie trying to get to this girl.
...
In certain scenes, if you could physicalize something, it would give the animators something to do. Give them something to play off of really strong. Normally in a scene, you’re thinking about what you give your scene partner to play off of, but in this there was this invisible scene partner that if you did some big motion that was really going to help them, you know, it might feel ridiculous for you, in the moment, to do it but it was really to help them.
...
We only did one sequence, actually, that was mostly green screen. Mostly it was fully built sets. Then we did a good amount of stuff, actually, on-location in LA. Downtown LA that dressed to look like New York and other places. We did a shot that was literally on the grass at the Paramount lot...


* Thanks to Gabe for emailing me about the MTV article, and Scott at one-eighteen-oh-eight for the IESB article.

17 comments:

  1. Why don't we name the monster, Ganu?

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  2. No, the monsters name is now Clover! Not like it needs one, but we should stick to that because

    1) We can prevent a tidal wave of dumb names

    2) It turns Manhattan into its "Cloverfield", hence the name

    Or name it the Monstronomous Gargonoth, a name that belongs only to the biggest of the big.

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  3. he revealed quite a bit..

    ..well, about the characters anyway..now we know marlena isnt that important..

    ...almost done editing my slusho commercial.. i'll put up a link when it's done

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  4. stuve, I'll NEVER call it Clover. That's such a stupid name for a monster (and I'm sure many people will agree). It's like when people have a huge vicious attack dog and name it Princess

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  5. I kind of like the ambiguity of calling it "The Monster". But i also liked the idea of keeping the title as 1.18.08. Anywho, i thought the most interesting part was his analogy of slusho to Popeye's spinach. Would it work that way on any character, or just Rob?

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  6. about the spinachthing,, i think the ones who did drank it,, becomes more "speeded" ;) and can last longer physically when escaping the ill-natured rampage. So that makes me think Rob´s losing pace , compared to the consumers... yez??

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  7. I mean, c´mon... Slusho!
    Zooom!

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  8. No mention of Jamie at all...

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  9. Marlena is probably at the party because she's friends with Jaimie. I really don't think Jaimie plays any other part in the movie though. And Slusho=not evil? Hmmmmm....

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  10. "I think [my character] might've been better off if he found some Slusho! [during the attack], but that would've been too much like Popeye eating his can of spinach."
    "The whole scene in the subway," Stahl-David said when asked for his favorite moment. "Once we go in there and get stuck and have to walk through those tunnels ... it's not a nice place to be ... I can't wait for the world to see that, and to hear their reactions."

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  11. The monster is, now and forever, named Mr. Grumpypants!! The viral community has already named him!!

    Viva la Grumpypants!!!

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  12. Well, we always called the movie 'Cloverfield" while we waited anxiously for the real title, and we when got it, it was the same.

    Why dont we just do the same thing, lets just call the monster "The Cloverfield Monster". Its cool, hip, and keeps us in shape!

    Clover is a pretty gay name, but, until we actually SEE the thing...we'll probably understand why they called it Clover.

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  13. IESB has an interview with him as well. Seems like they're all hitting the circuit.

    IESB Interview

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  14. cdawg1968 said... The monster is, now and forever, named Mr. Grumpypants!!

    Uhhgg. Anything but that... :p

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  15. Mr. Grumpypants??? That's what I call my two year old nephew when he wakes up. Too close to Lumpypants. Godzilla doesn't come with a sir name. Perhaps we need a Japanese name to counter or we need an American name that will stick hard. I would rather wait and see the actual characteristics of the monster beforehand. I would agree now is the time to brainstorm and to lose the group think mentality. We need invention.

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  16. Paramount should hold a contest
    to name the monster, winner
    gets to be in the sequel.

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