Tag: E.T.

There are plenty of stories with Hollywood endings — this is one with a Hollywood beginning. A new J.J. Abrams film called “Super 8” reaches theaters on June 10 with a coming-of-age story about young, amateur filmmakers who film a spidery space alien on the loose in Ohio during summer 1979. For people who know the 44-year-old Abrams, that plot seems only slightly more fantastic than the real-life, three-decade story that led to the film. “The craziest thing is that it’s true, it actually did happen,” says Damon Lindelof, who collaborated with Abrams on the landmark ABC series “Lost” and the hit 2009 film “Star Trek.” “The more you know about the story, the crazier it is to see this movie coming out now.” “Super 8” was written and directed by Abrams, but it was produced by his childhood hero, ...

No one plays their cards closer to the vest than J.J. Abrams, and that’s why “Super 8,” which arrives in theaters June 10, is still a bit of a mystery to most moviegoers even in this age of relentless ramp-up hype and show-everything movie trailers. The director of “Star Trek” and co-creator of “Lost” has only talked a bit about the film, but we know it’s a small-town coming-of-age story told against the backdrop of an alien-on-the-loose adventure and involves the spectacular wreck of a secret government train in 1979. The filmmaker winces watching the marketing saturation of contemporary summer movies that may accomplish the job of filling theaters but also saps the magic revelation of movies — he misses the days when audiences bought a ticket and sat down in the dark both literally and figuratively: “To me, all people need to know ...