Cloverfield is a 2008 American monster movie directed by Matt Reeves and produced by J. J. Abrams. The film was first publicized as a teaser trailer during screenings of Transformers; however, the trailers never listed the title of the movie and only provided its release date, "01.18.08". Paramount Pictures carried out a large viral marketing campaign in order to promote the film prior to its theatrical release. Cloverfield was finally released on January 17, 2008, in New Zealand and Australia, on January 18 in North America, and on February 1 in the United Kingdom.