We don’t know much about JJ Abrams new super secret Super 8 outside of its basic premise and a few leaked details online. However we do know that it will take place in Lillian Heights Ohio.
It is not a Cloverfield sequel or prequel.
It will not be shot or distributed in 3D.
It is written and directed by JJ Abrams.
It is being produced by Steven Spielberg, along with Bryan Burk and Abrams
It will be released in 2011 as an Amblin Entertainment (not Dreamworks) release (Paramount Pictures Distributing, Bad Robot Producing)
This will be an homage/tribute to Spielberg’s 1970’s/1980’s Amblin films, like Close Encounters of a Third Kind and E.T. Imagine combining that with the characters, mystery and supernatural spin of Abrams.
It takes place in the late 1979.
The trailer was shot independently of the film a month ago, and the special effects were done under the cover of Abrams new NBC series Undercovers.
The film’s actual budget is in the range of $45 million-$50 million.
It will be shot traditionally, and not through a handheld Super 8 Camera ala Cloverfield.
It will be released in Summer 2011. The release date could be May 27, 2011. I say this because Paramount, just today, pushed Mission Impossible 4 out of that date, and back to December, leaving the slot open.
HeatVision says that actual movie has something to do with “the possibility that a group of kids in 1979 are playing around making movies with their Super 8 cameras (as Abrams and Spielberg did as kids) and accidentally capture something … sinister, on film.” This certainly gels with Vulture’s original theory on the trailer.
Paramount put out an open casting call looking to cast unknowns for the lead roles.
J.J. commented about working on the film with Spielberg at Comic-Con “It’s unbelievable. It really is surreal. I mean because there is a genre element to the movie, it’s impossible to work with him and not constantly reference the work he has done, and you don’t want to sound like you are being a sicko fan. But it’s been incredible, and he’s been beyond helpful. And the movie is, I think, very much in the spirit of some of the Amblin films that he made years ago. So it is a dream come true. And I couldn’t imagine working on something that is more sort of personal and also hyper real. It’s not like the movie is some kind of autobiography, but there is a lot of stuff in it that feels very personal.”
And some of the pictures caught from the town that would be Lillian Heights Ohio.
I don’t know that after successfully pulling off the Cloverfield secrecy that JJ will get away with it this time, however these pictures only tell us the town’s name. So much is still unknown.
I live in the town where they are shooting this movie. They are shooting as I am typing right now. I don’t know much about it, but it seems like it is going to be a good movie. They shot a big scene yesterday and a lot of people were involved.
The town where it is being filmed is actually just across the river from Ohio in West Virginia. It’s where my wife grew up and we were just there last weekend to visit her parents. They are making heavy use of the town’s rust belt aesthetic. We saw several storefronts downtown that had been converted into various 1970’s style shops. They’ve also been utilizing parts of the old steel mill for construction of sets and storage of some sweet 70’s automobiles.
If find out anything else, I’ll post it here.
What town? I grew up in a little town just over the West Virginia border as well.
The movie is being shot in Weirton, WV
looks like a normal town, i wonder what jj has planned for those nice people