The Internet seems abuzz over a teaser trailer that aired before screenings of Transformers this weekend. Dubbed Cloverfield, the only thing that seems to be known about the movie is that J.J. Abrams (the guy behind Lost and director of Mission:Impossible 3) is producing it and that it is coming out January 18, 2008 – as 1-18-08 is everywhere.

Below is the teaser trailer for the film (you can see the higher resolution version here). It definitely has a Donnie Darko vibe but also reminds me of a mixture between The 25th Hour and War of the Worlds. In typical Abrams fashion, it’s very cryptic.

The hype to me just seems a bit odd as Abrams neither directed or wrote the film, he is simply producing it. Steven Spielberg produced Transformers, that doesn’t make it a Spielberg film – it’s a Michael Bay film all the way. The film also seems to have no major stars – which I think is good thing, but again I wonder why all the buzz.

Speaking of Donnie Darko, my immediate thoughts after watching the trailer were of Darko director Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales. That movie also has quite a bit of mystery surrounding it and since it debuted at Cannes well over a year ago, and might not see the light of day in theaters until 2008. That movie is also supposedly about strange disasters happening to a group of friends.

The trailer is a good exercise in buzz-making. Give a lot, leave them wanting a lot more. You can never go wrong with a Statue of Liberty head flying through the sky. Maybe Cloverfield is just a movie version of Lost in disguise…