Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Trailer

The first trailer for the J.J. Abrams executive produced film Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was released with Transformers: Dark of the Moon and online. It continues the story of Ethan Hunt and is IMF crew.

JJ Abrams on Daily Show and Jimmy Kimmel for Super 8

At this point there isn't really anything new to be said about Super 8 but if interested below are embeds J.J. Abrams on the Daily Show June 14th and Jimmy Kimmel Live. If you are interested in his NPR and MTV interviews hed over to TrekMovie.

Bruce Greenwood Is The Super 8 Monster

In an interview with the Montreal Gazette, Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) revealed that he was Cooper in Super 8. Cooper is the name J.J. Abrams gave to the alien creature in the film. Greenwood wasn't actually in the film but his motion capture work (like was done for Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies) was used for the creature.

“It’s not your typical acting exercise at all, because you’re really the only person in this room with all these cameras in it. It was a very weird thing to offer up all this big emotion while ...the rest of the people in the room are picking away at the craft services table. And you never really how it will turn out because it’s all left in the hands of the artists and animators who are putting your work together."

So far Super 8 is doing pretty good at the box office with an opening weekend of $35.5 million especially considering the movie was made for less than $100 million (cheap for a summer movie). It will likely do just fine profit wise but not break any records. Like many summer movies nowadays, its success (or failure) will not be determined until the international sales add to the total since more and more the non-US audiences are accounting for the greater percentage of a movies' sales. (via TrekMovie)

Abrams Interview on Super 8 and Other Projects

In an interview with Collider, J.J. Abrams discusses many of the projects he is currently working on. He is about the wrap up promoting his latest movie Super 8, move into possibly directing Star Trek and executive produce new shows Alcatraz and Person of Interest. In the interview he discusses each of these projects. Below are a few highlights about each with the full interview here.

Super 8

Was that part of the connection you had with Steven Spielberg, who also began by making 8mm movies?
ABRAMS: When I had this thought to go back and do a movie about that period of time, the first thing I did was call him because I knew that he had made movies as well, at that time. Luckily, he said yes.
A lot of your projects have had a monster element or plot to them, and you said you experimented with monster movies when you were a kid. What do you like about the monster factor, and tweaking it for a modern audience?
ABRAMS: It depends on what it is. There are situations where it’s great for a scene or sequence, but not the whole movie. And then, there are times when it’s a fun idea and that’s the premise. In this case, the idea of a creature was cool for me, but just because the idea was that it would be a way to externalize and make physical this thing that this kid was going through internally – the idea of the loss of his mother. This creature represented the thing that was the most frightening to him, which was the idea of never getting past the loss of this person to him. To me, I’m more interested in the idea of why there’s something there. What does it represent? What does it mean for a character?

Super 8 Two Minute Featurette

Apple Trailers has added a 2 minute featurette that shows a little behind the scenes with a mix of interviews with J.J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg and the cast of Super 8 as they give mini sales pitches on why you should see Super 8. Sadly it looks like I will not get a chance to see it this weekend so be sure to post what you thought of the movie in the comments. Thanks to Feris Othman for the link.

Super 8 Viral Video Prequel

A few months ago pieces of Super 8 was distributed to media sites that where seconds of a larger film. The pieces were occasionally made available online but the full video was never available. Until now. Below is the complete viral video that provides a brief glimpse at the monster as a kind of prequel to the movie.

Super 8 Poster, 3 Clips and Sneak Preview

Super 8 are just days away from release and with it a new poster, movie clips and a twitter related opportunity to see the movie a day early. The poster is fan made to invoke the look of classic posters created by Drew Struzan for Indiana Jones, Back to the Future and other movies but looks so darn good that it should be official.

Paramount is offering a sneak preview of the movie on tomorrow June 9th through 300 or so theaters (and IMAX locations). They are using twitter to promote this with the hashtag #Super8Secret. If go to here, you can find out a theatre near you that will be showing the movie on Thursday, June 9th. As part of this sneak preview promotion, participating theaters are offering free popcorn with concession purchase. With the preview twitter promotion is a six minute video from the movie that includes part of the train crash. There are also two shorter clips below.

Train Crash

Abrams Talks Super 8 Monster, Kids

In an interview with io9, the director J.J. Abrams discusses the Super 8 monster, working with kids and more. Below are a full segments, the full interview can be found here.

The monster is a tricky thing from the story [perspective] to make work. The reason it's in the movie is that it's a physical manifestation of the struggle going on inside this boy who has lost his mother. The idea of confronting this thing, the inevitability of having to confront this thing, really maps the inevitability of having to deal with that loss and figure out a way to get past it. And so having to see and confront this thing that's the scariest thing in the world, by definition, this creature has to be terrible.

Super 8 JJ Abrams Video Interview

Collider has posted a video inteview with JJ Abrams as he discussed Super 8. A few highlights is talking about effort put into keeping things secret, the viral marketing campaign, the use of the Amblin logo that often preceeded some of Steven Spielberg's greatest films, and that there is an Easter Egg involving Leonard Nimoy.

MTV Movie Awards Super 8 TV Spot

A new TV spot aired as part of the preview for the MTV Movie Awards 2011. The spot includes a lot of new footage with an emphasis on the action. Super 8 hits theatres this Friday. In addition a new Harry Potter trailer was revealed. Thanks to Feris Othman for the link.

Super 8 Cast Interviews

Shock Till You Drop has posted a nearly 10 minute interview with the cast of Super 8. It is an edited piece from 3 seperate interview segments Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, and a group interview with the remaining group of child actors. In a weird way it is interesting to watch because Kyle is the most experienced actor of the group so was in full sales mode, Elle is in charm mode and the group just seemed to be having fun and enjoying the experience. Thanks to Feris Othman for the link.

The Story Behind Super 8

Hero Complex has written a long article that gets into the origins of Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams and them coming together to work on Super 8. It turns out this ideas for this movie started back in their childhood. The full article is here but below are segments of interest.

The finished film is, in a way, three stories projected on one screen — the history of Spielberg, the childhood of Abrams and of the characters from the script. The huge train crash in the film, for instance, takes on different shadings when you find out that the first movie Spielberg remembers watching in a theater was Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which featured a spectacular collision of trains. It was later that the youngster carefully set up his Lionel train set so he could film his own wreck. In a moment of epiphany, the boy realized that with three cuts (train going left to right; train going right to left; trains crashing) he was telling a story with moving pictures.

“It was more than seeing someone’s movie and saying, ‘You know, I bet I’d get along with him.’ It was more than seeing a painting and thinking, ‘I bet I know what matters to that artist.’ This was an oddly personal thing never intended for viewing at least not in the context I was seeing it in. I always kept that in my heart and head.”

New TV Spot, Viral Comic

Super 8 is just a touch over a week away from release and the TV spots keep coming. Below is another one to enjoy as they start to incorporate some of the early very positive reviews the movie has received. In addition, if you hit your local comic book store and read current "Flashpoint" story arc, you will find a comic short story that explains some of the back-story behind the discovery of the alien in the film. Turns out it began with Sputnik. Of note is the use of a classic 1960's look and DC logo. Thanks to Feris Othman for the links.