What's J.J. Abrams up to now?
Forget animal, vegetable, mineral, the main question in the entertainment world today right now is: Film, television show or novel? On Monday morning, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot company had a brand new video posted on its YouTube Channel. Entitled, Stranger, this thing made everyone stark raving crazy all day (and, at last check, all night, too). To say the video, which is definitely a trailer for something, is mysterious is an understatement. I've watched it several times and I'm not sure what it's for either.
The theories that some have come up with are really interesting, though. Before I get into that, here is the aforementioned mysterious trailer/video/whatever-it-is from Bad Robot Productions:
Stranger
What's your first reaction? Is this a tease for the new Star Wars movie? Is it some sort of viral thing connected to LOST? TV? Film? My initial thought was that maybe this was in some way connected to the new J.J. Abrams/Alfonso Cuaron TV show due out in 2014. I wasn't alone, others, including Jeff Jensen from EW.com's Popwatch thought so too. He has several other valid theories though, including that this could well be a trailer for a novel Abrams is collaborating on or another TV series, Phantom Stranger. He clearly does not believe this is connected to Star Wars. As he puts it, "too soon."
Do you agree? My Twitter feed lit up this afternoon with Star Wars fans pointing out that at the end, the final caption ("Soon he will know") ends with "Soon will" and then just "Soon." They're spouting off that "Soon Will" is "SW" and "SW" is...well, you get it. Seems like a stretch to me, but I still wanted to include this development on this movie blog. Any fans believe this is a Star Wars: Episode VII tease?
And yes, this caught the attention of a fellow LOST fan friend of mine who reminds me regularly that "We have to go back." I don't think this is a LOST thing at all, though that piano music sure sounds an awful lot like Michael Giacchino's work, does it not?
So far, the most plausible theory I've read is from Carolyn Kellogg at the Los Angeles Times, who seems to think that Stranger is a trailer for the book J.J. Abrams is collaborating on with Doug Dorst. At this point, all we really know about the novel is the title ("S.") and the release date (October 29, 2013, according to this Amazon.com listing). Also, the publisher, Mulholland Books, offers up a summary that explains this novel is "...a multi-layered literary puzzle of love and adventure."
Multi-layered, you say? J.J. Abrams is involved, you say? This seems plausible. In fact, it's the most solid explanation I've read thus far.
If you have any other theories, I'd sure love to hear them. Maybe J.J. just felt it was time to screw with our heads a little, you know, so we wouldn't forget about him.
Photo courtesy of Nerd Reactor