Matt Reeves On Cloverfield's Finale And The Importance Of Physical Media [Exclusive Interview]
During the DVD boom, it was normal to see big directors and actors make the publicity rounds to promote home video releases. I was lucky enough to chat with some absolute legends because of this era. John Cleese talked with me about "Monty Python and The Meaning of Life," Mel Brooks jumped on the horn to promote an anniversary release of "Blazing Saddles" on DVD, and John Landis even enthusiastically told me "Blues Brothers" stories for that DVD release.
We live in the streaming era now, so I thought those days were over. But then Mr. Matt Reeves himself dedicated some time to promoting the upcoming 4K UHD release of his big breakout movie, "Cloverfield," and I was in the fortunate position to get the chance to pick his brain about his memories of the movie.
I started by asking Mr. Reeves why supporting a physical media release in the year 2023 was so important to him and the conversation quickly turned to other important topics, like the story behind that buzzworthy first teaser trailer, how the bummer ending survived the studio notes process, and even a small tour of the geeky movie posters on the wall behind me as we conducted this interview over Zoom.
Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
'Star Wars', Criterion, and the importance of physical media
I wanted to thank you for doing this because I think there's an importance to physical media. Maybe that'd be a good place to start. Why is a physical release of this movie important to you?
You know, it's funny because when you mentioned that, I really think of something that for me was such a formative thing as I was growing up, becoming a filmmaker, and then being a filmmaker. Do you remember Virgin Megastore?
Oh yeah, of course.
Going to Virgin Megastore, that sadly would be, often, many of my Friday nights. "What are we going to do? Oh, Virgin Megastore's open till two, let's go and let's look at the Criterions." The idea of being able to hold the movie that you love ... it's funny, when I was a kid, after I saw "Star Wars," my dad was a business affairs executive and he knew someone at Fox. So for Christmas — and this is something that I think people don't understand because now everything's so easily available. You have it on your phone, you have it all over. But when I was 11, my dad for Christmas got me this big box and I was like, "What is this?" And it was before they were commercially available because he worked at a network and they used to watch shows right on Betamaxes.
I was like, "What is this?" And he said, "Well, this can record and play things on the TV." And I was like, "What is that good for?" And he said, "Well, open the other box." The other box was two tapes. And I was like, "What's that?" And he said, "That's the whole movie of 'Star Wars.'"
The weird thing is, this wouldn't mean anything now. Now, if you bought a kid "Star Wars," they'd be like, "Oh." Or you download it. They're watching it on streaming on Disney+ or whatever it is, and it is what it is, but that gift was one of the most important gifts that I ever got. It was like my dad gave me "Star Wars." I was like, "You're giving me the whole movie?!"
So I've always had this kind of love of being able to hold the movie that I love. And also, that was my film education. I remember watching on the Criterion, all the stuff with Martin Scorsese, him talking about, in "Taxi Driver," certain frame rates that he was using in different shots. I was like, "Oh my God, this is film school all over again." So I just have a real love for that.
And, honestly, with streaming, the image is not always pristine the way it is [on physical media]. My favorite thing, still, when I want to throw something up and it's my favorite movie, to be able to go from the Blu-ray or the UHD or whatever and just put it up. You're going like "Oh, wow, there it is looking as good as if I was seeing it in the theater, really, except I'm not in the theater."
So it has always meant a lot to me, physical media, and actually it's something that I miss. You don't really go to the video store anymore. There was a place called Laser Blazer. Remember Laser Blazer?
Yeah.
You could go and look at all of those. So I share that with you, and I miss that.
[Gesturing to my overflowing shelf of Blu-rays] As you can see behind me, this is but a small sampling of my collection. I mean, maybe it is an offshoot of being a kid going to a video store and...
Hey, I love the "Conversation" poster. That's cool.
Yeah, I got "The Conversation" up there and "Raiders (of the Lost Ark)" and...
Oh, you got "Creepshow."
Yeah, "Creepshow," too.
Awesome.
Thanks! What I was saying earlier is that maybe being a physical media enthusiast is an offshoot of going to video stores when you're a kid. Just the idea of having the movies you want at your disposal.
Oh yeah, there's that whole experience, too. Just like, "Hey, it's Friday. What do you want to see?" You could see something old, you could see something that just came out that you hadn't seen or that you had seen, but you want to see it again. There was a kind of preciousness to it. I love the convenience of streaming, but one of the things that I really sort of loved about the idea of physical media and also the going to the theater was, there was a certain level of preciousness. It's like when my dad gave me "Star Wars," it wasn't like, "Oh yeah, so now I have 'Star Wars,'", it was like he gave me my favorite movie. It was a crazy thing.
The wild ride that was the release of the mysterious teaser trailer
The very first thing that pops into my mind when I think of "Cloverfield" is when the first trailer hit and the internet went absolutely bugf***. "What is this? Is this a 'Godzilla' movie? Is this a 'Voltron' movie?"
Yeah, "Voltron" was the big thing. That was because in the trailer there's a moment, and it's actually my voice, where I said, "It's alive! It's huge. It's alive!" And my voice is so high and so squeaky that people were like, "It's a lion." That's where the "Voltron" thing came from, I think. But yeah, there was all kinds of crazy speculation. That was so fun.
I would love it if you could talk about that from your point of view, watching that unfold, because it was mysterious. The title wasn't even in the trailer! And it worked! Fifteen years later, I'm still thinking about it.
Yeah. I mean, to be honest with you, we weren't even sure if that was our title. We were still trying to figure out what we're doing. To be honest with you, it was thrilling and terrifying. I mean, it was thrilling for all the reasons you would think, which is, "Oh my God, people are actually intrigued by what we did," which is amazing. We always thought, "Wouldn't it be cool if this trailer came out of nowhere and people go, 'What the heck is that?'" That was super cool.
But the thing that was scary to me, and I think to all of us, is that we were so early into shooting, and we were still finding the movie. So there were all these people going, "What is this movie?" and there was a part of me going, "I don't know what this movie is yet." We had only just started shooting, and normally when you make a trailer you've shot, usually, the whole movie, and then you're editing, you're in post.
This was the case where that very trailer was made of footage that was actually a test to see if we could even do the movie because it was a handycam VFX movie and the effects people at that time didn't know they could even track the handheld footage. So it was a really, really crazy time. I mean, it was definitely by the seat of our pants. It was thrilling and it was really fun, but I look back and I think, "Oh my God, that was a crazy thing to go through."
The sad ending was the only way this story could have concluded
I'm getting the wrap signal already, but I do have one more question, and it's a little bit about the legacy of "Cloverfield." I re-watched it last night and one of the things that struck me is this came out the same year as "The Mist," another sci-fi/horror movie I love. Both of those movies have very, let's say, downer endings.
I think every movie I've done has had a sad ending, ultimately. But anyway...
Wait, what's that say about you?
Yeah, I don't know. I have some issues. [laughs]
So the question is about the ending. Was that always the creative endgame? Was there ever any pushback on that? Was there ever any thought to maybe the main characters getting out or is a downbeat ending just kind of baked into the found footage format?
Gosh, you know, we absolutely did have some debates about it. I remember that, especially for Drew [Goddard] and I, we felt that the most hopeful ending was that ending. Because the point was, for that last moment, if that's their last moment — and there's ambiguity, but it doesn't seem good — the fact that they are with each other and they love each other, it's sort of a beautiful, transcendent idea. And then we end on them talking about that day in the footage from when they were out on that date.
There was something about them having at least found each other and to be together at that moment that, for as tragic as it was, it also was very human. We both loved that. So we were like, "Oh, no, no, we have to do it this way." So, there was talk about it, but I don't know that it ever got too serious, but there was definitely some people saying like, "Maybe we should think about this. Does it seem too grim?" And we're like, "Well, it feels like the right ending." So that's kind of why we did it.
And it is kind of baked into the found footage thing. Somebody's got to find that footage and it had to be left for a reason.
Yes, exactly.
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time, man. And again, I really appreciate you taking your time to help promote physical media. The more that's out there, the better.
I appreciate you doing the same.
The 4K Ultra HD SteelBook of "Cloverfield" is available now.