"7 Films That Shaped Super 8"

JJ Abrams, director and writer of Super 8, discusses with Hero Complex the 7 films that influenced the film. The list is Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, The Thing, Alien, Slumber Party Massacre, Scanners, and ET. To find out example why, click here.

Fringe Duo Partners with Abrams

It seems that JJ Abrams just cannot find too many shows and movies to produce as Deadline reports he might have found another project. Fringe co-producers Monica Breen and Alison Schapker have re-upped with Abrams' Bad Robot to develop another TV series and write a movie.

I've learned they've been hired to do a rewrite on one of J.J.'s top-secret projects at Paramount. With a working title of Zanbato, the script involves Japanese history and robotics: "swashbuckling robots with swords" is how one insider describes it to me. (That's the project which Francis Lawrence is no longer attached to direct.) The female writing team will continue to develop original material with J.J. and Bad Robot. Their "heightened reality" crime drama Pulp was written under their deal last year, and now it may turn into a graphic novel or potential comic book series for Warner's DC Comics.

Super 8 Interactive Teaser

Portal 2 video game contains an interesting extra feature that allows "players" to briefly interact inside the train car that is seen crashing in the trailers up to the point that the creature escape. The video below shows off this teaser but from what I can tell no real secrets are revealed. It is mostly just an interesting way to promote a movie. Knowing Abrams, the codes on the documents probably work in whatever online viral-marketing campaign that goes with the movie but so far I have not found any details.

JJ Abrams Signs Novel Deal

JJ Abrams is adding yet another hat to his long list of job titles. Now he can add published novelist to the list. It was announced that the writer/director/producer etc has signed a deal with publisher Little, Brown and Co. to write a thriller novel. The book will be written with Doug Dorst. The target release date is fall of 2012.

It sounds like the case with a lot of writers nowadays where one comes up with a story idea and outline than another writer steps in and fills out the details with a little back and forth to tweak it. It is almost ghost writing like used by the rich and famous for their books but with the writer actually getting credit for their efforts. Examples of this include John Patterson and Tom Clancy where they get the writer credit but it doesn't necessarily mean they did all the heavy lifting. Since this is collaboration, it is unlikely to interfere with any of his existing projects and not factor in decision to direct Star Trek 2.

New Super 8 TV Spot

A new TV spot for Super 8 apparently aired sometime this weekend. About a minute long, it shows a lot more of the children that lead the cast of this film and includes a lot of new scenes not seen in previous trailers. Thanks to Super8News for the heads-up.

Super 8 Mystery Film

JJ Abrams has shown with pretty much all his films that he likes to use the internet in some form or fashion to tease his films and introduce a little back-story. Super 8 is no different has there have been a few sites that might be related to the movie but not confirmed. However, an update to the official website leaves no doubt and was supported by a package that was sent to Entertainment Weekly.

...a mysterious package arrived at EW HQ containing a small, slightly-weathered, so-very-seventies orange box of Kodak Kodachrome 40 super 8 film. Outside the box: An expiration date of “08/1988″ and the numbers “761 7820″. Inside the box: A white plastic cartridge, holding a short reel of film offering about 30 frames of footage – a literal little tease of film. Holding the film strip up to our window, we can see a presidential-looking dude sitting at a desk with a U.S. flag behind him and talks directly to camera. The box also contained an instruction to send an email with a separate code to an address at super8-movie.com. After doing so, we headed over to the website, clicked on the feature labeled “Editing Room,” and there was our strip of film, dangling from a dark room hook.

If you go to the Editing Room, there are options to scroll through the available strips of film (not really a whole lot) but if you click the "Open/Close" toggle on the right hand side and choose "Play" you can view what little there is to see. From what little is available (only 5 strips out of 100) it seems to be a video brief of some science experiment for the US government but the specific details, what it is for, did it end well or not and so forth are part of what isn't available. No idea what how more will get added but something to check out now and then.