Where has the time gone? "Super 8" is 10 today.
Thursday, June 10, 2021 at 8:00AM by Nathaniel R
the cast of Super 8
Remember Super 8? The sci-fi adventure was released ten years ago today. It was supposed to be a big Spielberg-size event (he produced it) and establish JJ Abrams as a successor. Things didn't quite work out that way, even though it was a decent-sized hit. Abrams retreated back into other people's franchises (Star Wars) where he'd begun as a film director (Mission Impossible and Star Trek). Super 8 grossed $127 million domestically (and another $100 million plus overseas) making it a success but probably not what Paramount was expecting stateside. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and The Smurfs both outgrossed it, keeping it outside the top 20 of its year. Still the sci-fi adventure had its fans and people by and large loved the young cast. And who knows. Perhaps it reengineered pop culture's DNA enough that five years later audiences turned Stranger Things into a phenomenon. Both are about a quartet of nerdy young boys, and the girl they're in awe of / a bit scared by, dealing with otherwordly forces in the Midwest. They're even set just four years apart Super 8 in 1979 and Stranger Things begins in 1983.
Super 8 is streaming on Paramount+ at the moment. We didn't have time to rewatch the whole movie though we skimmed to refresh the memory. Elle's "acting" debut in the movie within the movie is still a terrifically explosive scene. Anyway, we thought it might be interesting to see how the cast is faring today in their mid-twenties. Let's take them in billing order...
ELLE FANNING was the youngest of the cast at 13 but she was the elder statesman when it came to the movies, having been acting professionally since the age of 2 (playing her sister Dakota's younger self in I Am Sam. Now 23, Elle is a ubiquitous star if not quite a powerhouse headliner. Despite her fame, she hasn't carried a hit yet, generally supporting a bigger star in ensembles. When she does lead, as in The Neon Demon (2016) it's for indies and arthouse fare. She's also found success in the wild west of the streaming wars with Golden Globe and Independent Spirit nominations for her leading work in Hulu's period comedy The Great. Next up: Crime drama miniseries called The Girl From Plainville, and presumably another season of The Great. But it might be another year before we get her back on the big screen. She's completed the WW II era drama The Nightingale which is set in France but unfortunately it keeps getting pushed back for release. That's the long awaited (by fans at least) first onscreen duet for the Fanning sisters and is directed by the fine French actress Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds). Elle has also signed on to play 70s movie star Ali MacGraw in Barry Levinson's true Hollywood drama Francis and the Godfather. The latter has high expectations given the pedigree of the story, the director, and the cast already assembled.
JOEL COURTNEY was 15 when he carried Super 8 as the recently motherless son of the town Sheriff (Kyle Chandler). He won strong reviews but it's hard to find good roles when you're a teenager. Perhaps wisely he didn't push too hard, making about one movie a year though none had the profile of Super 8. At 25 now he's the right age to start the trek back (if you will) to leading man status if he can catch mainstream Hollywood's attention again. Next up: Netflix's The Kissing Booth 3, and an indie thriller called Pursued, and a Christian drama about hippies in the 70s called Jesus Revolution.
GABRIEL BASSO was the oldest of the teenage cast just six months shy of 17 when the film premiered and he was a regular on a successful TV show at the time (The Big C with Laura Linney). For Super 8 he played Martin, the leading actor of the young filmmaking team. He's only worked sporadically since then but with what appears to be fairly sturdy instincts for choosing projects (at least on paper) to set him up for a long-haul. He followed up Super 8 with a well-liked indie The Kings of Summer and then tried his hand at horror, action comedy, indie dramas, and a crime drama. And then he took a few years off. Unfortunately what looked like a star-making role on paper to re-introduce him as an all grown-up leading man prospect didn't pan out. Imagine it on paper though: an Oscar winning director's new drama starring two Oscar favourites but you have the leading role. The film was Hillbilly Elegy. Ooops. He turns 27 this December. Next up: Unknown.
RILEY GRIFFITHS, than 14, played Charles, the writer/director of the zombie film the kids are making within Super 8. He never made another movie afterwards. In college he played football for Montana State University.
RYAN LEE, 15 when he played Cary, stuck with acting. He hasn't worked much in the past couple of years (but then who did last year?) but appeared in several movies (Goosebumps) and television shows (Brockmire, The Son, Trophy Wife) since Super 8. Next up: the horror comedy Black Friday! which stars Bruce Campbell and is due in November.
ZACH MILLS, then 15, played the oft forgotten sixth member of the friend group, Preston. Unfortunately he's often holding equipment in the background and out of focus in group shots. And then he disappears from the adventure in the back half of the movie though he's really fun as a (purposefully) bad actor in scenes from the zombie movie within the movie, which plays during Super 8's closing credits. Other than Fanning, he had worked the most before Super 8 (nine prior movies as a child actor) but Super 8 was his last picture. He didn't act again... at least not for cameras; we couldn't find any information on what he's been up to since. But a lot of child actors give up the profession. Show business is tough and it's not for everyone.
And that's it for the young cast. But before we go we must talk Kyle Chandler...
When Super 8 premiered he felt like a leading man about to happen and got top billing in this film at least. Friday Night Lights had aired its last episode just four months before Super 8's debut and he would win a long overdue Emmy award three months after that. The timing was perfect for a transition to movie star. But that didn't happen. He certainly gets a lot of work but it's usually in supporting roles (Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, The Wolf of Wall Street, Carol, followed as well as against type performance in The Spectacular Now as a terrible drunk father) in which he was usually excellent if not always given much room to stretch. After that first wave of movies he dove back into series work with Bloodline. After that series ended it was back to the movies for more supporting roles (First Man, Game Night, Godzilla: King of Monsters). It's a solid, even enviable, career but we still wish there was more!
His screen presence is traditionally masculine with a very charismatic gravitas which he brings beautiful texture to. He often projects moral authority but it's flexible enough that his 'good guys' can be both awe inspiring and conflicted simultaneously and it's probably why his occassional assholes arrive with a true jolt. Impatience, warmth, exhaustion, morality, and sensitivity often swim around together in his performances. There's really no one like him. He's not lacking for work so this feels like demanding a lavish dessert rather than sustenance but what filmmaker will step up and give him a big interesting part to chew into that he can then be showered with awards for? We're (impatiently) waiting.
Did you see Super 8 back in the day? How invested are you in Elle Fanning and Kyle Chandler's careers?
Elle Fanning, JJ Abrams, Joel Courtney, Super 8, sci-fi fantasy
Reader Comments (20)
Super 8 is a quintessential JJ project, where there is a lot of promise, all the elements are there but somehow in the end it's a very underwhelming result.
This is the film that confirmed what I suspected after watching MI3. That JJ has not an ounce of originality in him. It is something I believe now even more than I did 10 years ago. If he never made a movie again, it would still be too soon.
I don't know if it was just the right timing for me to connect with it, but I absolutely loved this movie on release, and still do to this day. So much so that I consider it amongst my favorite movies of all time.
I gotta go with the two posters above: I can't remember much of what transpired in this movie, It was fine and all, but not exactly some sort of modern classic. Wasn't surprised it didn't do that well financially, it was an above-average monster movie with the cliched cast of (white) boys and one girl.
I quite liked this movie when it came out, derivativeness and all, but haven't revisited it since. I guess it's one of those things where if you're gonna rewatch, why not rewatch the movies it's homaging instead?
Elle Fanning is the only one of the kids I really remember, for obvious reasons - but it's hard to say whether that's because she's by far the highest profile of them (both before and after) or because she really had the most memorable presence. I think both - and being the only girl probably helped, too.
Totally agree on Kyle Chandler. I'm glad he gets work, but he is seriously underrated as an actor. I've had a crush on him since Friday Night Lights (Taylor Kitsch who? who would look at him next to KC?)
Has Kyle Chandler ever been bad in anything?? Just a solid, solid actor, that always brings something interesting to every role.
Super 8 as a hole was underwhelming, but Elle Fanning was Oscar caliber fantastic and wipes the floor with Oscar's entire Supporting Actress lineup that year, and I stand firmly by that statement. Fanning should have gotten some sort of push from the studio and narrowly misses my personal ballot (but honestly this is a year I wish I'd just nominate 6). It's a shame that Oscar's lineup was so lackluster considering that Mulligan had such traction for Shame and A Separation was on their radar and Sareh Bayat was RIGHT THERE!
Also, Rose Byrne DESTROYS McCarthy in Bridesmaids. The End.
Bayat
Byrne
Fanning
Laurent
Mulligan*
Redgrave
This film was more Spielberg than Spielberg and I loved it.
Big fan of Chandler, even went back and watched his first hit show Early Edition and it was great. He gets in a lot of great projects, not lead roles but not cameo type either. If he is in a movie I pay attention because he has good taste and fun to watch and root for.
I remember thinking Courtney was exceptional and that Fanning should have been Oscar-nominated. She WILL be one of these days!
"Super 8" was so embarrassingly trying to mimmic Spielberg that I disconnected from it, at the theater. Yes, there's the theme of letting go, but it is soooo drown in lens flare that it felt like a last minute addition... JJ Abrams is NOT a good writer or director. He depends too much on shock value and that fans will try to explain the obvious plotholes he fills his projects with. "Super 8" is even tonally unbalanced and it is ridiculous how we are supposed to be happy for the alien to escape... with several innocent humans as food for the trip!
I liked that film. We all knew Elle Fanning was destined for bigger things as she's doing great now.
Kissing Booth 3? Ugh... if I was that guy. I'd take on small supporting parts to wipe off the stench of that bullshit franchise.
Super 8 was a fun monster flick, underwhelming and totally original
Elle Fanning is GREAT in this. The movie is enjoyable, Joel Courtney is good, and it's still watchable.
I loved this movie. It’s the proto-“Stranger Things”. Elle Fanning was in my Supporting Actress top 5 that year.
The best thing about this film is the Super 8 movie the kids were working on that we get to see at the end
Ryan Lee, if I recall, played Melissa McCarthy’s son in a few scenes in This Is 40 and was hilariously referred to as “miniature Tom Petty” before McCarthy got groped in the upper nipple.
I have never liked a single JJ Abrams project - other than Felicity - and this film confirmed him as a Spielberg wannabe who wouldn't know an original idea if it bit him.
That said, I do have some affection for this film, because I was a teenage filmmaking nerd in the early seventies, a few years earlier than when Super 8 is set. And the film certainly gets an awful lot of things right about that experience. Including how awkward it was to get actresses to work with us at a time when just talking to a pretty girl was terrifying!
Anyway, its character dynamics are accurate - definitely better than the plot.
Mmm, must revisit this. Thanks for the reminder.
Someone above said that JJ doesn’t have an ounce of creativity in him and it’s true that his movie portfolio is all established franchise. Still LOST was a JJ creation and was at it’s best when JJ was heavily involved; and it changed TV for ever. Also, Fringe was an excellent concept and an often overlooked, sci-fi TV series. Sure it played off the X-files formula a bit at the start but it moved into a multi-verse of its own. In that sense it was ground breaking. I’d love to see him get back into Sci-Fi television where I think he belongs.
As for Kyle Chandler, his appearance in a film or TV series is often a deciding factor as to whether or not I will watch.
Unfortunately! I really like this girl's style but unfortunately there is no chance anymore, thank you for creating a better style.