Leave it to the Hollywood Reporter’s ever-reliable Borys Kit to get to the bottom of the raging "Super 8" debate.
J.J. Abrams‘ mystery movie has been revealed as the Steven Spielberg collaboration that Vulture first reported last week. The film’s teaser trailer will run before Paramount’s "Iron Man 2" this weekend.
There’s been a ton of speculation online (including here at TheWrap) that "Super 8" would be related somehow to the Abrams-produced "Cloverfield" but it seems that’s not the case.
Using several websites’ descriptions of the 90-second trailer, here’s what I’ve pieced together, and needless to say SPOILER ALERT!
Here’s an early trailer that appears to have been bootlegged from an Iron Man screening on Thursday night:
The teaser starts with a train carrying lots of cargo. We’re told that in 1979, the U.S. Air Force closed a section of Area 51 and shipped materials to a secure facility in Ohio. We see a truck driving down the road that suddenly jumps the tracks. "From Producer Steven Spielberg." The truck hits the train and explodes, and the train is thrown from the tracks. "And Director J.J. Abrams." We see the wreckage of the train … One car remains intact. "Next Summer … It Arrives." We see the surviving train car has the U.S. Air Force logo. The wheel of the door begins to spin, before the wall of the car begins to bend, as if something very strong is pushing on it from the inside. There’s a brief shot of an 8mm camera lens. The title appears — "Super 8."
It sounds capital-I Intense and I can’t wait to see it for myself tonight.
Apparently, Abrams filmed the teaser a month ago and his incredibly secretive Paramount-based production company Bad Robot edited the footage internally.
Abrams will direct "Super 8" this fall from his own script, and will also produce the film with his partner Bryan Burk and Spielberg. Paramount will release the $45 million-$50 million film at some point during the summer 2011, and even pushed back the Abrams-produced "Mission: Impossible IV" to accomodate the mystery movie.
Abrams is keeping the specifics of the plot under wraps, but it’s believed that a group of kids experimenting with a Super 8 camera in 1979 accidentally capture the creature on film. Abrams wants to maintain the mystery and would reportedly prefer to let the images speak for themselves.
It certainly sounds like a fitting Amblin-esque homage from Abrams to Spielberg, whose 1975 classic "Jaws" is the younger filmmaker’s favorite movie.
After "Super 8," Abrams is expected to direct "Star Trek 2," which is scheduled for a June 29, 2012 release.
• Adult film star Sasha Grey will have a multi-episode arc as herself on the upcoming seventh season of HBO’s "Entourage," reports TV Guide.
Grey will play the long-term girlfriend of Adrian Grenier‘s movie star character Vincent Chase. The actress will meet Vince in a bar in the fifth episode of the new season and will stick around for the remainder of the season. She may even return for the series’ eighth and final season.
"Entourage" creator Doug Ellin was reportedly impressed by Grey’s dramatic turn in Steven Soderbergh‘s indie film "The Girlfriend Experience," as was this writer.
Ellin also told TV Guide that he wouldn’t have indulged in the storyline if Grey had passed on the role.
• Michael Imperioli, the Emmy-winning actor who memorably played Christopher Moltisanti on HBO’s "The Sopranos," will star in writer-director Richard Ledes‘ horror-thriller "Foreclosure."
Inspired by the current mortgage crisis, the film is set on a neighborhood block in which nearly every house sits vacant and bank-owned … and possibly inhabited by ghosts.
Wendell Pierce ("The Wire") co-stars with Bill Raymond, Jeff Burchfield, Meital Dohan, Brandon Gill, Spencer List, Tristan Laurence Perez, William Stone Mahoney and Roger Robinson.
Ged Dickersin ("City Island") is producing the film, which begins production next week in Queens. Check out the film’s official site for more details.
