Last week, The Reel Bits was lucky enough to be invited to a roundtable of “Australia’s top bloggers” and sit down and have a semi-exclusive chat with writer/director/über-producer JJ Abrams on his new film Super 8. Participants in the roundtable included David McVay of GeekActually, Richard Gray of The Reel Bits, David Longo of Damn Good Cup, Josh Philpott of CineFools, Courtney Dawson of LipMag and moderator Anthony Britten from Way to Blue.
Along with what is sure to be a massive blockbuster, Abrams is the creator of TV series LOST, Alias, Felicity and Fringe. He’s also responsible for the recent reboot of Star Trek, Mission: Impossible 3 and writing the upcoming Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Armed with nothing but his sunglasses, an iPhone and a typically mysterious black box (that remains unexplained, it was a very travel weary Abrams who sat down with us at Sydney’s Intercontinental Hotel on the morning of 3 June 2011, yet this didn’t diminish Abrams’ ability to give his typically thoughtful and enthusiastic responses to our questions. We managed to restrain ourselves and not ask a single one about Felcity’s hair.
Over the course of 20 minutes (or so), Abrams discusses getting the period right, the liberation of not having to deal with modern technology in storytelling, on wrangling children and Star Trek cast members, the difficulties of films with heart and his own experiences growing up with film.
We’d like to thank Way to Blue and Paramount Australia for making this possible. We’d also like to send a big thank you to JJ Abrams (wherever you are) for one of the most generous and thoughtful conversations we’ve had in a long time.
Super 8 is released on 9 June 2011 in Australia from Paramount.
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