Movie Talk: Spielberg references in Super 8

From an article for SpielbergFanclub.com

DVD comes out on Tuesday

Set in small-town America circa the late ’70s, the film skillfully combines elements from the master’s greatest hits: a shaggy preteen hero coping with parental absence; a stirring, John Williams–y score (courtesy of Michael Giacchino); and plenty of close encounters. What’s missing, even with Mr. E.T. himself in the producer’s chair, is the sense that all this nostalgia means much to anyone involved.

Super 8 may be a deeply cynical act of tribute art, but for any dyed-in-the-wool Spielberg fanatic, there’s pleasure to be had in spotting its various references and callbacks. In keeping with the spirit of Abrams’s uncanny copy job, let’s take a close, minute-by-minute (and spoiler-intensive) look at the film’s most blatantly Spielbergian moments.

1:25 Our hero, Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), makes his first appearance. He’s a slightly older, sadder variation on E.T.’s Elliott, who also suffered from the loss of a parent. As in Spielberg’s film, Joe is introduced outside the circle of kids; he’s the lonely survivor of a broken home.

17:17 Super 8’s inciting incident is an F/X-heavy re-creation of the model-train derailment Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) uses to demonstrate a math principle to his son in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And the truck that barrels into the oncoming train is a dead ringer for the one Neary drives when he makes his first UFO sighting—at a railroad crossing, no less.
20:32 Elle Fanning’s survey of the wreckage from the train derailment recalls a shot from War of the Worlds, during which Fanning’s older sister, Dakota, gawks at the fiery remains of a downed airplane.

26:29 Mirroring the establishing shots of both E.T. and Close Encounters, Abrams offers a sprawling, nighttime overview of his small-town setting.

28:40 Joe and Charles (Riley Griffiths) ride bikes through town, evoking the big chase at the end of E.T.

34:39 Joe’s father, Deputy Lamb (Kyle Chandler), is a proxy for Roy Scheider’s alarmed sheriff in Jaws. In this scene, he tries to convince his skeptical boss that trouble is brewing.
37:03 A gas-station clerk listens to his Walkman while the town sheriff is attacked by…something in the parking lot. It’s reminiscent of the scene in The Lost World: Jurassic Park in which Peter Stormare meets a grisly demise not far from his oblivious, headphone-wearing buddy.
45:39 In another Jaws shout-out, Deputy Lamb holds a town meeting to address public concerns. If only he had a Quint to hunt down the rampaging monster in his community.

1:19:50 The alien assault on a bus dimly echoes the T. rex–on-vehicle attack scenes in both Jurassic Park and The Lost World.

1:26:05 Is this suburban-war-zone set piece, with Charles kneeling to help a wounded friend amid gunfire and explosions, a PG-13 allusion to Saving Private Ryan?

1:38:20 The community-farewell climax of Super 8 may remind you of Close Encounters’ utopian finale, but the UFO that eventually takes flight looks more like the one in E.T. Sadly, the magic of both movies is conspicuously absent here.

Catwoman, a black eye, & masked man on ‘Dark Knight Rises’ set

Check out the original posts on DeskofBrian: http://deskofbrian.com/2011/06/catwoman-a-black-eye-masked-man-on-dark-knight-rises-set/

Christopher Nolan’s third Batman film, “The Dark Knight Rises” consumes fans’ attention as news breaks on the Internet. After a week where star Anne Hathaway accidentally injured a stuntman and a new set photo goes viral, “Rises” again stirs up fans as extras on need in Pittsburgh. The audition process for extras was in full swing on Friday and are scheduled through next week.

The Omni Hotel is the setting of Batman fervor as the ad stated “prisoners/thugs, guards, police officers, business men & women and sports fans” as SWD Casting posted the open call with “no acting experience needed.”

“The Dark Knight Rises” continues to streak into movie headlines as Anne Hathaway, Selina Kyle and her alter ego Catwoman, went over the top while during a fight scene.

A source told The Sun: “Anne got a bit carried away during a fight scene and mistakenly shoved the butt of a gun right into the actor’s eye socket. He came away with a massive black eye. Anne was mortified. It was all in good humor but the poor guy took quite a pummelling.”

The Dark Knight Rises recently launched a new casting call asking for ‘prisoners and thugs’ to star in the film.

A casting call for a Warner Bros. production mysteriously titled “Magnus Rex” seeks extras to play “victims and perpetrators within a city besieged by crime and corruption. Take part in the urban action adventure ripping through the streets of Pittsburgh from July 28 through Aug. 21.”

“Magnus Rex” is believed to be the working title for “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Lastly, this week intrigue swirled around the ambiguous masked stuntman photo posted on Den of Geek. This photo was taken during the shoot at Croydon, London.