Trivia / The Cloverfield Paradox

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• All-Star Cast: The Cloverfield Paradox is packed with big-name, acclaimed actors.
• Channel Hop: Went from being a theatrically-released Paramount movie to a Netflix film. Paramount still receives credit for producing it and still owns Chinese distribution rights.
• Recycled Script: Many of the film's ideas are recycled from the Abrams-produced Fringe, particularly its third and fourth seasons.
• Troubled Production: The film was originally written as a standalone film titled God Particle before it was bought by J. J. Abrams' production company Bad Robot, which turned it into a Dolled-Up Installment in the Cloverfield Modular Franchise — and as (perhaps unintentionally) revealed in a Facebook Live interview with Abrams, director Julius Onah, and stars David Oyelowo and Roger Davies, the process of making the film into such lay at the root of its problems. The script was constantly being fiddled with during production to add connections to Cloverfield, most notably an entire subplot set on Earth with Davies' character (which doesn't connect back to the main story in any way) after test audiences wondered what was happening down there. Paramount, deeming the finished film to be virtually unsalvageable, sold it off to Netflix for $50 million rather than release what they predicted would be a Box Office Bomb. While the film's surprise announcement during Super Bowl LII, complete with the news that it would premiere on Netflix that night after the game, brought it a ton of buzz, the film wound up getting a very mixed reception that bitterly polarized those who saw it, with one of the biggest complaints being that the attempts to connect it to Cloverfield left its story an utter mess.
• Voice-Only Cameo: Simon Pegg reads the first line of dialogue as the reporter heard over the spaceship's radio.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Producer J. J. Abrams originally wanted a little extra time to work on the movie in post-production, but that option was off the table once he became preoccupied with The Rise of Skywalker.
  • From a casting perspective, John Krasinski was reported to be up for a role in the film, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with Jack Ryan.
  • The original plot would have had an all American satellite crew, and after teleporting, would have had them be forced to decide if a European spacecraft they encounter was really there to save them or not.
• Working Title: God Particle, and later Cloverfield Station after it was confirmed that this was the third Cloverfield movie.

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