His new film, codenamed "Cloverfield" (although what it's actually going to be called in the cinemas, I don't know, I've heard "Parasite") is starting to get some attention, with a trailer being shown before Transformers in the states, but it's been taken down wherever it crops up online. The plot is being kept top secret, and now there are three websites after popping up related to this:
http://www.ethanhaaswasright.com/
http://ethanhaaswaswrong.blogspot.com/
http://www.1-18-08.com/
Any ideas?
At my work there's a load of folks who think it's about Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos so i take it that's the general rumour/buzz on the inter-me-web.
Be bloody interesting if it is.
Strangely, Ethan Haas is also the name of a character in a now-defunct US TV show that I've never heard of. Relevant? Probably not.
Link: Ethan Haas
I've been looking at those sites again, I'm sure that the weird sphere in the Haas Was Right one can be unlocked somehow to reveal something cool, I just have no idea how to do it. And the source code had this hidden in it: "...war came, no longer from the elemental nor from the star's rain of fire. The world was again remade, and the glow was as the coming of the sun upon the Earth. The children of the gods were again too few, scattered and divided and among them walked the ancients and those whose thoughts were not as to the towers and the marvels, but to the End and the destruction of the Earth and to the fires from which nothing could escape."
As for Haas Was Wrong, most of the site is written in a different language, I don't know if it's even real. And the 1-18-08 is just those two pictures, which you can click and drag around. I'm sure the times on them are significant. In one of them everyone's happy at a party, then 25 minutes later, it looks like somethings gone very wrong....
And here's an okay version of the trailer:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=12281681
Muuussst resisssst viiiiraalll marketttiiinggg....
Nah, no good, they got me. What a fun SF-fan-baiting trailer, especially the nods to the excellent Tremors ("Should have left town a bit earlier"), Planet of the Apes (Statue of Liberty Head), less successful grabs from Godzilla (various), Independence Day and Blair Witch. Looking forward to the campaign, if not the movie (yet).
I've done some digging (cos I've got nothing else to do in work today) and I found the solution to the first puzzle on the Haas is Right site (blanked just in case you want to figure it out yourself)
Click the sphere to make the triangles pop out, and remember the order in which they appear. Then click each triangle in that order. You'll get a distorted video message talking about Ethan Haas, and something about August 1st. Also, the bright stars in the sky are important.
Perhaps he's trying something new and different from his usual mileu, like a needlessly complicated telling of a straightforward thriller story with just a hint of fantasy?
The trailer looks intriguing, and the fact it isn't written by Abrams inspires hope. According to Wiki'officially more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica'pedia, "The film concerns a small group of people who contend with a monster attack on present-day New York City."
As film premises go, it's so simple it's brilliant - and can only be better than that War of the Worlds thing where tom Cruise was 'forced' to enter an alien tripod's anus.
There were two small clips on Youtube but they've been taken down now. Both were shot to look like a handheld camcorder. One showed a pick-up truck wildly driving down a small town American street that then clips an old lady who is sent flying by the impact. The other is a view from within a car driving down the highway when suddenly a huge Onyx like block drops out of the sky onto a car coming in the other direction. Weird, and, because of the handheld feel, quite disturbing.
That reads....
7777 777 777 7715 4587 2215 3366 112250 22155.
Ethan, where WHAT IS THE CLOVERFIELD are you now?
11 22 55 88 44 345 664 997
12 4578 655
They're coming Ethan.
The skies are burning li__ ke... It's Ragnarok! It'sthe thunderof The Gods!
Ice falls into the lands like daggers into the snow, the hills burn like the caught by the fire of 4458 4
You were right/wrong.
Co-ordinates are off, suggest recalibration by 73 degrees I have lost t
CLOVERFIELD PROJECT CEASE
1-18-08, 1/18/08, abrams, clover, cloverfeild, cloverfield, Cloverfield, ethan, ethan haas, Ethan Haas, ethan hass, ethanhaas, ethanhaaswasright, grand theft auto, j abrams, little dudes, puzzle,
Now I just don't know what to think:
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=21825
The Ethan Haas websites have nothing to do with the film says Abrams. Is he flat out lying? The film studio did immediatly demand that the video clips from the site be taken down off Youtube, which implies he's just pulling some legs, but if he's telling the truth, then who made up the connection and how did it get so big so fast?
is clues hidden in new Grand Theft Auto game????
Well, I just enjoyed the explosion!!!!
Another possible clue site, (but of course, Ethan Haas has nothing to do with this.....)
http://www.ethanhaas.org/
Lot of stuff hidden in the source code:
Well that's weird. All the source code I posted disappeared. Freak-y.......
Ooh, fun!
Some bits I've noticed so far...
-Haaswaswrong
The text looks like Sanskrit. I can't read it, but one of the boffins on my favourite Lost site claims to...
How easily humanity is misleadâ?¦.
The Mezin feared that your kind might be so easily distracted, that All may be lead by One down the garden path, that your eyes and minds may be so easily clouded. You point to a date in the future that means nothing to our cause or your futureâ?¦
We have been here since mankind fought with sticks and bones, your technology may have improved but can the same be said for the human mind,
Most certainly a vile manipulator like Van Mantra will exploit this weakness in the masses and lead you all to ruin.
Clearly there are some among you who know the truth and may even be worthy of the Mezin, who have strength of mind and will to see what truly awaits and are not distractedâ?¦.
-Haaswasright
Clicking the left star makes outlook to pop up. The subject banner reads 'I am one of you, please help me' I bit and am now awaiting a vast amount of inevitable spam.
Puzzle part 2
spell out HA on the vertical lines and AS on the horizontal.
Puzzle part 3
is like that solitaire game with the marbles. Move the points of light about until there's one left
I am proper stuck on part 4.
-1-18-08
If you rotate the photos and leave them alone for a bit, they start moving about, very slowly, on their own. Also, what's that between the two faces on the second photo?
I think thats just hair between them, hair and light.
All looks interesting doesn't it.
A new photo has appeared over at 1-18-08.
I can't believe I'm hooked on figuring this out! At least it keeps me busy til Lost returns :)
Link: Shouldn't it be dark outside?
but what to figuring out on those photos???
Slightly new development; Go to the 1-18-08.com site, and wait for exactly 6 minutes, making sure your speakers are on.
As for the whole Ethan Haas thing, that was some marketing campaign for an online RPG. So it seems Abrams was indeed telling the truth. But the truth seems so dull.....
He never got over The Colonel getting caught in that trap?!
I'm glad that this empty bullshit marketing campaign has backfired on Abrams, serves him right. Just concentrate on making the film instead of the hype.
Interesting that a couple of the photos have something written on the back.