Now this is mighty interesting. New York Magazine thinks they might have (accidentally) gotten their hands on the ending to J.J. Abrams’ “Cloverfield” (or “1-18-08″ or “Monstrous” or “Overnight” or “Whatever The Hell It’s Called”) via a callsheet for the film’s New York production. Of course it could all be bogus, and Bad Robot (Abrams’ production company) could have planted it and whatnot, but come on, are they really THAT clever? I don’t know, that has the makings of an “Alias” episode right there if that’s what happened. In any case, read on for POTENTIAL SPOILERS.

So here’s what NYMag says:

Cloverfield’s plot revolves around a small group of people struggling to survive a monster attack in Manhattan. On Monday night, blog /Film reported on a scene in which principal characters Rob and Beth (played by unknowns Michael Stahl-David and Odette Yustman) are buried in debris while hiding under a bridge, and speculated that this could be the movie’s conclusion. From the looks of Monday’s call sheet, it just might be.

We’re certainly cynical enough to entertain the possibility that this call sheet is a planted fake, though we doubt it. And it’s also entirely possible that the “alternate ending” is just for Cloverfield’s Central Park sequence and not the entire film. But if scene 160 is the screenplay’s final scene, Cloverfield ends with Rob and Beth underneath a bridge in Central Park, ignoring the chaos, focusing on each other. (The “alternate ending” listed on the call sheet has the two characters doing the exact same thing; obviously, a call sheet is no substitute for a screenplay.)

8/9/07:

You may have noticed that the callsheet image is gone. It was removed as requested by Paramount, which is the same as saying I removed it because they threatened to sue me. But what can we learn from this? It appears this may, in fact, BE the ending for “Cloverfield” after all! Or if not, then the boys at Bad Robot are really working overtime on this misinformation stuff, and kudos to them if that’s the case.

(Note: NYMag still has their copy of the callsheet up if you’re curious.)