LOS ANGELES, Jan 24 — The next part of the Cloverfield saga might skip theatrical release and instead head straight for home audiences via Netflix.

Paramount is understood to be in talks with Netflix over international distribution rights for the third Cloverfield movie.

The first acquired US$170 million (RM663 million) internationally in 2008, making the most of its US$20 million budget. Matt Reeves was directing his first film in over ten years, following David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow comedy The Pallbearer.

A more claustrophobic 10 Cloverfield Lane, originally developed independently, became part of the Cloverfield universe and made US$110 million on US$15 million under the hand of feature-length debut director Dan Trachtenberg.

God Particle, which is expected to change its name prior to release, was steered by Julius Onah, a Nigerian-American director making his second full-length feature.

Set on a space station where an experiment has a disastrous effect on the Earth below, its cast includes Daniel Brühl (Captain America: Civil War), Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby), Aksel Hennie (The Martian) and Gugu Mbantha-Raw (A Wrinkle in Time).

Following nearly a year of uncertainty over its release date, in early January 2018 the untitled Cloverfield sequel was most recently put back to April.

The Tracking Board and The Hollywood Reporter brought news of the Netflix angle.

Netflix had previously struck a deal with Cloverfield studio Paramount to take on international distribution of February’s Alex Garland sci-fi Annihilation through its streaming platform. — AFP-Relaxnews