All week, more and more snippets of information about the secret J.J. Abrams project “Super 8” have started to emerge, ahead of the trailer’s debut on Friday in front of “Iron Man 2”. Hitfix were the first to report the story and reveal the existence of the trailer, suggesting that sources had told them it was unconnected to the previously announced Abrams collaboration with Steven Spielberg, and that it might (might…) be a sequel to “Cloverfield.”
Next up was Vulture, whose source claimed the film was definitely a follow-up to that monster movie, and that the trailer involved a group of teens discovering an alien creature on their Super 8 home movie, although Abrams then told the site that the film “has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘Cloverfield,’ despite your expert reporting.”
A couple of independent sources now appear to have seen the trailer, as both /Film and Ain’t It Cool have run similar reports on it. We’re not going to repeat them here in case our readers want to wait to see it for themselves, but it’s now clear that this is the same Spielberg/Abrams project announced a few weeks ago (yes Abrams will be directing it), as the teaser carries the credits “From Producer Steven Spielberg” and “And Director J.J. Abrams,” as well as the Amblin Entertainment logo, which backs up the initial reports that the film would be a tribute to Spielberg’s work of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In fact, at a guess, the film seems like it could be similar to “Night Skies” and “E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears,” two aborted Spielberg projects of the period featuring malevolent alien creatures (and not a million miles away from the upcoming, and equally indebted to Spielberg “Paul,” although we imagine “Super 8” won’t be a comedy). It’s also unclear what relevance the title has to the film (this writer still reckons that the finished film may hang on to a period version of the found footage conceit, even if the trailer doesn’t). But that’s all you’re getting from us. If you can’t bear to wait, head over to one of the sites above, but we’re sure the trailer will be online within 48 hours.