Monday, May 30, 2011

Five Clips from Super 8

Thanks to Coming Soon, below are five clips that show some of the scenes before and during the train crash that has been teased in the Super 8 trailers and TV spots. Thanks to Feris Othman for the link.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

New Super 8 TV Spot

A new Super 8 TV Spot has been leaked online, not sure when it will start being aired on TV. This one is called "Secret 30." (via Super8News)

Update: Not sure how but managed to post the wrong video that has now been corrected. Thanks to Feris for pointing out the error.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Super 8: Abrams and Spielberg Video Interview

As part of the promotion for Super 8, J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg sat down for a 13 minute video interview (below) with Empire. Among the highlights of the interview:

- The film was a result of the pair’s love of 8mm film as children and conceived as children accidently shooting a big secret.
- Was going to be a heist movie but Abrams combined it with his monster movie idea.
- Set movie in 70s because amateur filmmaking was more difficult and required great deal more effort. Also Abrams knew that children wanting to be filmmakers than tended to be outcasts versus today.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Japanese Super 8 Poster & New Clip

First Showing brings us the first look at the Japan poster for Super 8 that is very cool looking and different from what normally see in posters with all the close-up head shots and the like. These are the kind of posters I hope Hollywood PR machines produce more often. In addition, here is another new TV spot for the movie. Thanks to Feris Othman for the links.



Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Person of Interest Preview

J.J. Abrams executive produced show Person of Interest has joined the CBS schedule for the Fall 2011-2012 TV season. The just announced schedule puts it on Thursday at 9PM replacing the long time slot of CSI which moved to Wednesday. The show stars Michael Emerson, James Caviezel, Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Chapman. Below is a preview of the season with cast interviews.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Super 8 Clips and TV Spots

Below are 2 new clips and 1 TV spot for Super 8 which will hit theatres in a few weeks on June 8th. This is in addition to the ones released the other day. (via SciFi Mafia)

Clip #1

Alcatraz Teaser Trailer

J.J. Abrams' next television show was recently picked up as a mid-season replace by Fox for the 2011-2012 season. The show is executive produced by Abrams and Elizabeth Sarnoff. The current cast is Sarah Jones, Jeffrey Pierce, Robert Forster, Sam Neill, Jorge Garcia, Jonny Coyne, and Jason Butler Harner. Below is a teaser trailer and after that a description of the show from Examiner.com.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Abrams' Person of Interest Picked Up

J.J. Abrams is on a small hot streak has he has another show make it to 2011-2012 television season. The show "Person of Interest" has been picked up by CBS joining his Alcatraz from Fox. Person "centers on an ex-CIA agent, presumed dead, who teams up with a mysterious billionaire to prevent violent crimes in NYC. It stars Michael Emerson and James Caviezel."

Three New Super 8 TV Spots

The release of Super 8 is just three weeks away and that means the arrival of many TV spots. Three new ones were release yesterday and as usual for a JJ Abrams production, they are light on revealing anything about the story. Thanks to Feris Othman for link. Note the third video auto-starts.

"It Arrives" (via Yahoo! Movies)

"Jersey" (via /Film)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

J.J. Abrams' Alcatraz Goes To Series

I lost track of how many television shows that J.J. Abrams' and his Bad Robots production was shooting to hit the fall schedule. So far he is 1 for 1 with Alcatraz getting a order from Fox for the 2011-2012 televison season. The show is one of four new shows already getting orders before the upfronts start. Few details are known about the show and likely more changes will be made between the pilot episode and the what occurs now that the show has been picked up. Exactly how many episodes have not been revealed but I imagine it is in the norma l3 range with potential for more if ratings go well. Also were on the schedule it will go will be released at Fox's upfronts which I think take place next week.

Sadly this and other orders a favorite of mine, Human Target, is official cancelled. Joining it are three shows I have been enjoying - The Chicago Code, Lie To Me and Breaking In which were both very well done and could have become something great if given the opportunity.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Super 8 iPhone App

As part of the marketing for Super 8, a new app has been released for the iPhone 4.0. The app adds effects and filters to video recordings so can mimic the look and feel of a Super 8 recording. Like the best marketing campaigns this is free. Click here to learn more or just download it.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Abrams About Super 8 Kids

In an interview with MTV, JJ Abrams briefly discussed casting and kids for his film Super 8 that is coming in June.
MTV News: Obviously the kids are key to this one, and we think about Spielberg working with kids. Were you naturally always comfortable working with kids. Did you rely on Steven in terms of working with younger actors?
Abrams: I don't think working with actors, young or old, is ever very easy or a given. Everyone's different. There are some actors with whom I feel I have this crazy psychic connection and I don't feel like I have to say anything and they get what it is. When you're casting, the most important thing is casting people who don't necessarily have to be told what to do at every turn but will inspire you by coming up with things you never would have thought of. Working with kids is something I had done only sparingly. In "Star Trek," there was a young Kirk and a young Spock. But never really like this, and frankly I was terrified. I was dealing with two main actors who had never been cast before and never been on a set before. They didn't know the most fundamental things about how a crew works. Everything was an alien experience for them. The fun of working with them, partly, is they weren't professional kids. And then there was Elle Fanning, who's from another planet herself. There's a kind of innate brilliance and sophistication, the likes of which I've never seen in an actor, especially an actor who when I worked with her was 12.

MTV News: Do you test screen something like this for audiences?
Abrams: On the films that I've directed, including this one, I've done friends and family screenings, where we'll bring people in who are either friends with or part of the family of people working on the movie or know people working on the movie, just so we know they won't go out and tweet or post or blog. Hopefully people who can be brutally honest about what they're seeing. You don't want populate it with people who are on the movie's payroll.

MTV News: Has anyone given you one note in particular that has really helped you?
Abrams: Oh my god! I could not be more grateful and reliant on those notes. Everything from things they didn't understand or didn't ring true to sequences that felt confusing or too slow. You do the first cut and you go, "There's no way we can lose any more time." And then you show it to people and you realize you were wrong about a number of things. This is just a process you go through all the time. You go, "I've been through this before, next time I'll just know." Then you do it again and you get a response where you realize all your work's ahead of you. It's a wonderful process to show the movie and then discuss it.