We'll go with 'reportedly' here because the production of J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg's film Super 8 remains quite secret. But Vulture's source says the first two name actors cast in the film are Elle Fanning and Kyle 'Friday Night Lights' Chandler. (Guess he's glad he didn't take that job on the show Terra Nova?)
No word yet on who they'll play, or how big the roles might be, or anything else about the movie, for that matter. There were those casting calls that were reportedly meant to find new young actors with a 'midwestern feel' for roles, but we don't even know what the result of those searches might have been. So we're still in speculation city, but for now you can tack up photos of Chandler and Fanning to your Super 8 corkboard, at least until further notice.
Since it's been a minute, here's a recap of what we know about Super 8.
It is not a Cloverfield sequel or prequel.
It is written and directed by JJ Abrams.
Yes, 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.
And 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
Variety says the film will begin principal photography in Fall 2010.
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.
The release date could be May 27, 2011.
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.
