VIRAL NEWS

J.J. Abrams' Next New Super Top Secret Project: 500 Rads?

by Alex Billington
November 4, 2009
Source: Pajiba

Can you remember back to July 3rd, 2007? You were probably sitting in a theater, and some random trailer started playing that had footage from a surprise birthday party for some guy named Rob. That was the start of Cloverfield. They hadn't even shot any real footage, it was a super secret project, and that first trailer captured everyone's interest. Jump ahead a few years and now J.J. Abrams is done with Star Trek. We don't yet know if he's directing the sequel and his go-to guys from Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, Drew Goddard) are both off doing other projects. So could he be working on another secret project? One called 500 Rads?

Pajiba (via SlashFilm) claims to have some information regarding this secret project. "J.J. Abrams and his production company, Bad Robot, are secretly developing a movie called 500 Rads." They go on to say the budget is supposedly around $25 million (Cloverfield was also made for $25 million) and that it'll be shooting in Europe (most likely to help maintain secrecy and cut costs). It's apparently based on an outline written by J.J. Abrams and was being scripted by Jeff Pinkner (who has worked on "Alias", "Lost", and "Fringe"). Now that Pinkner is heading back to "Fringe," though, they need another writer to finish it up.

So what is it about? Well, first off, Pajiba also said "we do know that it's a movie in the vein of both Cloverfield and 28 Days Later." Hmm, so maybe a zombie invasion movie, shot like Cloverfield? In regards to the title 500 Rads, which may or may not just be a codename for something else, the term rads stands for "absorbed radiation doses", as in how much radiation your body would absorb if you were to walk into a nuclear reactor. And speaking of which, according to Wikipedia, 500 rads is enough to kill a human male, or at least make them sterile. So far this could mean anything - zombies, mutants, hell, even King Kong.

Brendon over at SlashFilm thinks it might have something to do with "fertility sci-fi, ala Children of Men." That's possible, but I also think it could either have something to do with zombies or undead, or it could have something to do with a mutant creature, kind of like Cloverfield. Hell, it could even be the Cloverfield sequel, under a different title with a different concept, and they're just trying to keep everything a secret. I'm not really sure, but my interest is already piqued. Following Cloverfield from start to finish was a wild ride and I can't wait to find out what 500 Rads is all about. Well, that is as long as the project actually exists!

Filed under Hype, Movie News, Viral

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