How Super will Super 8 Be?

J.J. Abrams, you’ve done it again. In case you’re not entirely aware of who J.J. Abrams is, he’s one of the executive heads behind TV’s power-player Lost and the director of Cloverfield (amongst other works, of course). Just like Cloverfield had a mysterious viral marketing campaign back in 2007, the newly endowed “Super 8” seems to be following in its big brother’s footsteps.







The newly released teaser trailer shows… this:



Let’s recap:
Something about an Area 51 alien or mutated creature seems to be lurking on a train. The train, according to the captions, was supposed to transport extremely vital material to Ohio from Area 51. Obviously, something bad happened as someone yelled out, and the two vehicles collided. Weird, Cloverfield Jr. baby monster then allegedly escapes from its confines, and it was recorded on none other than an old, “Super 8mm” camera. For the uninitiated, we’ll call that an old person camcorder. For the heavily initiated, this may be wrecking your mind, as a catastrophic even such as this being told through the lens of a super 8mm camera can only be described as “ridiculous.”

And, of course, who could miss that great name drop right in the middle of the trailer? Mr. Steven Spielberg is producing the film alongside Abrams’ direction, which tells you that this is going to be one monster of a movie! There’s your pun for the day.

Anyway, speculation from various sources says that this is supposed to be a heavily special effects-laden affair with a 70’s and 80’s feel of filmmaking to it, much like Spielberg achieved in his golden age with films like Indiana Jones. However, special effects doesn’t necessarily mean “computer-generated” special effects…thus, what I’m hoping for is a film that harkens back to a Jurassic age of animatronics, puppetry, and real-life machinations rather than relying on CGI and green screen.

No release date has been set as of yet, but the budget is purportedly in the $50 million range. This is 4th grade lunch money compared to most computer-made films of today, so this will certainly be interesting. Abrams has already gone on record stating that this film “…has nothing whatsoever to do with Cloverfield…” according to an NYMag article.

As an additional little tidbit of Abrams apparent obsession with encryption, he apparently sent out the reel for the trailer in special canisters that required a special code to crack open. I wouldn’t be surprised if his mansion was just one gigantic Rubik’s Cube.