Paramount Pictures has released three new images from director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) forthcoming, top secret movie Super 8, that’s not only inspired by Steven Spielberg but produced by the iconic director as well. While the movie itself is a bit of a secret, the inspiration behind the movie is not. Abrams considers the film an homage to the films of the late 70s, not the least of which are those from Spielberg’s Amblin era.

Check out the three images and what the director had to say about his inspiration for the movie below!

The director recently spoke to the LATimes about growing up in 1979, the year in which Super 8 is set in, and the movies from that era that inspired the film.

“It’s difficult to separate memories of being a kid in 1979 from the movies of the era. That was the year Alien came out, it was a couple of years after Close Encounters and Jaws, and then were movies a couple of years later, like Stand By Me, that were so impactful. There’s a jumble of movies that I love, some of them the mainstream movies but also the gruesome horror movies that I loved so.”

Abrams also went on to list E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Scanners, The Thing and Slumber Party Massacre as movies that inspired Super 8. The director also took the opportunity to speak about movie marketing and missing the days where the audience doesn’t know much about a movie before they head to the theater to see it.

“To me, all people need to know is that it’s an adventure about a small town and it’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s scary and there’s a mystery: What is this thing that has escaped? What are the ramifications of its presence? And what is the effect on people?”

Synopsis:

In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth – something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined.

Super 8, directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard, Noah Emmerich, Gabriel Basso, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills and Amanda Michalka is slated to hit theaters on June 10th, 2011.