Surprise trailer released for secret 'Cloverfield' follow-up '10 Cloverfield Lane'

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- To the surprise of many, Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot have released a trailer for a secret Cloverfield follow-up, 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Cloverfield, originally released in 2008, was a successful found footage thriller centering around a group of friends trying to survive in New York as a giant monster attacked the city.

A sequel to the film was discussed for years and in 2014, Bad Robot, producer J.J. Abrams' production company, announced that they were working on a new film under the false title of Valencia. That film has now been revealed as 10 Cloverfield Lane with a trailer that was released with Michael Bay's new film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.

The trailer, which stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr. features the trio trying to past the time while staying cooped up inside a bomb shelter. Eventually, Winstead's character, seemingly annoyed by the captivity, attempts to flee only to be shocked by what she finds outside.

Speaking with Collider last year, Winstead, without saying she was starring in a Cloverfield film, revealed that the project only has three actors and a simple premise. "It's basically my character wakes up in a cellar and I'm being kept down there by John Goodman. He tells me that basically the world is over outside because there's been a nuclear fall-out," the actress said at the time.

Following the release of the trailer on YouTube, Abrams released a statement on the nature of the surprising sequel. "The idea came up a long time ago during production. We wanted to make it a blood relative of Cloverfield. The idea was developed over time. We wanted to hold back the title for as long as possible."

10 Cloverfield Lane directed by Dan Trachtenberg will release in theaters March 11.