Dan Trachtenberg Says Damien Chazelle Was Initially Going To Direct '10 Cloverfield Lane,' Talks Deleted Scenes & More

If you haven't seen "10 Cloverfield Lane," you're missing out on a pretty nifty contained thriller that, while a sideways companion to "Cloverfield," is really a movie all its own. And it's an entertaining one at that, a brisk genre piece that has a go for broke third act you can't help but admire. However, the project all started from a spec script called "The Cellar" by Josh Campbell and Matthew Stuecken. Once in the offices of Bad Robot, producer J.J. Abrams got the brainwave to connect it to the "Cloverfield" universe, and Damien Chazelle, pre-"Whiplash," came in and rewrote the screenplay into the movie we know now. And as a matter of fact, he almost got behind the camera too.

READ MORE: Review: ‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ Starring John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, And John Gallagher Jr.

“Damien was originally going to direct it as well, and then ‘Whiplash’ came up, so I have so many things to thank him for. He made an...