Code-Name Cloverfield - Let the Viral Marketing Begin

For those of you who are so bored without a *Lost *riddle to unravel this summer that you're ready to shove blunt objects into your eyes, have no fear a new puzzle has arrived! If you're one of the bajillion people who saw *Transformers *this weekend, you probably caught this nameless trailer for the new J.J. Abrams film -- currently being called "Cloverfield." It's produced by Abrams, written by *Lost *and *Alias *writer Drew Goddard, directed by Felicity co-creator Matt Reeves and involves some sort of monster attack on NYC. And that's all that's really known. Period. Well, sort of. The viral marketing has [apparently] already launched. On the site 1-18-08.com (the current release date of the film) are two pictures which can be moved around thanks to Flash. One shows a man being force-fed a shot and the other (shown here), time-stamped just a few minutes later, shows two women (some think it's just one) staring in horror. But look closely, there seems to be some goblin/ghoul/monster-y creature between those two faces. WTF?!? Other than that weird head there's nothing else there (yet) but at least a half-dozen seemingly related sites have been popping up. The craziest is ethanhaaswasright.com (g'ahead, click it, you know you want to). If you go to the site and click on one of the stars it opens up your email application to send a message to someone named Van. Write any message and this is what you'll get back (or at least it's what I got):

I think I’m safe, for now. Wherever I go it isn’t long before they find me.

It seems The Mezin are connected to every aspect of humanity, from culture and religion to our most advanced technology

I have to be more careful contacting all of you. When I began I thought I could safely speak about his writings and perhaps save us all...

but now it seems I will have to find a more subtle way to share his visions.

If this is the first message you have received from me do not give up hope! There are others that have gone before you, the way has been found, you only need to search and you will find the answers you seek. We will all have a role to play. We are getting stronger, our voices will be heard!

I have more of Haas’s writings, once I find a secure way to transmit them I will leave you clues to find them.

The more I read the more I realize Haas was right………

Um, OK. The whole site is a game, which I've tried to play but suck at. So I cheated and found this, which walks you through it. Once you're done you're promised some new clues on August 1st. Stay tuned... This Ethan Haas kid? He has a site and a blog.
The site has changed since last night, by adding white text over what was previously written (screen capture after the jump), there's also this weird digitized audio message as the page loads, but it's hard to decipher. "Does this Haas character have detractors?" you ask. Why yes he does. There's the Truth of Ethan Haas blog written by Mezin Source, who just attempts to contradict this Haas dude, often in strange characters. And, get this, if you go to ethanhaaswaswrong.com it pulls up a CafePress.com store hawking T-shirts that read "Ethan
Haas was right and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." (This one seems the most likely to not have anything to do with the actual viral marketing campaign, but who knows.) Last, but not least, there's ABZ 3293
(ooh, numbers? yay!), which tells visitors that the owner of the site is looking for the driver of a car with that New York license plate, because they have a family heirloom. How is this relevant to the monster-invading-NYC thing? Well if you watch the trailer you'll notice that when the head of the Statue Of Liberty goes flying through the street there's a parked SUV with that tag. Oh, and for what it's worth,
Tribble Ad Agency also seems to be looking for this same driver.

The mind boggles. Abrams told Ain't It Cool News that the 1-18-08.com site is the only one that people have found that's actually affiliated with the film, but frankly, I ain't buying that.
The other sites are too well placed and coordinated to be the work of a bunch of bedroom laptop jockeys. And what would be the fun if they just told you what the official sites were and weren't? There are too many leads to follow, so I'm trusting you, dear readers, get cracking and leave comments about what you find.

Screen capture from ethanhaas.org (the white text signed "Ethan Haas 7cm" is new):

__UPDATE: __Thanks goes out to a reader who tipped me off to the threads here, here and here that discuss which of the above sites are affiliated with the film and which aren't. Plot thickens...