JJ Abrams goes retro

That JJ Abrams is one savvy dude.

How do you possibly top a big-budget box office hit that’s a success among critics and fans both? Answer: you don’t. And Abrams knows it.

Hot off his Star Trek reboot, Abrams has picked his next film, and he’s done it with a wise method: lower expectations. Instead of another big-budget epic, he’s filming a lower-budget scifi pic that’s crazy smart.

The movie, which has existed under a shroud of secrecy until last weekend’s trailer preview before Iron Man 2, is an homage to Steven Spielberg’s old-school scifi pictures, from the early part of his career. The twist? Abrams, who also wrote the script himself, talked Spielberg himself into being an executive producer on the film. It’s called Super 8, and it’s made with the conceit that it’s been shot on the older film format. As you might expect from a Spielbergian film, it has something or other to do with aliens.

In case you haven’t seen Iron Man 2 yet, here’s the Super 8 teaser trailer: