Catastrophic critters, curious creatures and Christmas cheer

It’s cropped up all over the legally dodgy corners of the interwebspace, but now the trailer for the project generating the most intense buzz is finally officially online.

But the film, directed by Matt Reeves and produced by M:I:III’s JJ Abrams, continues to play the mysterious card- it still doesn’t have an official, studio-announced title and, after trolling around the rumour sites under the name “Cloverfield”, has its promo up at Apple under 1-18-08, its American release date.

The plot- such as we know so far- unspools on the titular day, as friends of some bloke named Rob prepare to send him off to Japan. But a massive rumble rocks the party in a New York loft, the lights dimming and relighting to chaos. Soon TV stations are full of scrambled reports – is it an earthquake? – with the partygoers dashing to the roof as whispered rumours of what is occurring downtown start to spread. We won’t say anymore, but suffice to say it gets catastrophic fast.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of that new mystery pic, JJ Abrams himself dropped Ain’t It Cool News to reveal that the Ethan Haas sites, with all those fun games, don’t actually have anything to do with his movie. Is he right? Only time will tell, and it’s worth remembering that this is the man who helped make Lost- anything could be a double bluff right now.

Also arriving with plenty of anticipation is the next trailer for the Vince Vaughn/Paul Giamatti comedy Fred Claus. Worlds away from the original gabfest teaser between Giamatti and Vaughn, this is the brand news, action packed version. It’s a little generic, but chuckles are to be found within, so catch that here .

Somewhat less heavy on the geek radar is kiddie flick The Spiderwick Chronicles, which finds Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’s Freddie Highmore moving with his family into a creepy old house on the edge of a forest. When the bored youngling finds a mysterious book with a dire warning for those who open it, what do you think he does? If you answered that he leaves it well alone and goes looking for a stash of porn mags, you’re clearly in the wrong genre.

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