Spotlight: J.J. Abrams, the guy who can make 'nerd' films everyone sees

By Sarah Sluis

Last weekend the Comic-Con darling Scott Pilgrim vs. the World opened to a disappointing $10 million. The cult movie Kick-Ass also opened soft, to $19.8 million, though I can vouch for both films: they deserved more. This has led to writers sounding the alarm about so-called nerd films that fail to cross over to the rest of the marketplace.

Which made me think of someone who has managed to inspire both cult followings and crossover audiences with his work: J.J. Abrams. "Lost" drew in diehard fans as well as mainstream audiences (although some of the less devoted, such as myself, dropped out before the final season). Last year, he managed to attract wide audiences for that apex of nerdom, Star Trek. Never did I think I would go to a Star Trek movie and not think of all the Trekkie nerds I knew in school, but he did a great job making the story accessible and somehow appealing to the kind of people who wouldn't be caught dead at a sci-fi convention, or who had never even seen a single episode.

What stronger sign that someone has "made it" than when Steven Spielberg collaborates with you? The two are working on a sci-fi/aliens/teen-oriented project called Super 8, which is coming out next summer. Both directors have a populist sensibility that also works well with critics, and I bet they'll be able to come up with something incredible together. Let's not forget that both Jaws (Spielberg) and Cloverfield (Abrams, producer) were both the types of action/horror movies that usually receive a much more low-brow treatment.

This week, Abrams announced that he's also working on the nostalgically inspired 7 Minutes in Heaven, which will focus on two teens who disappear in a closet for their seven minutes in kissing heaven, only to return to find their friends dead. It's a clever pairing that juxtaposes the innocence of youth with murder--isn't that what all teen slasher movies are about? Of course, there could be other forces at work, but a slasher is the first that comes to mind, unless Abrams wants to go The Happening route and create toxic trees.

On a lighter note, Abrams appears to have a thing for numbers, and it's only a matter of time before he can count to ten with his films: There's Super 8, 7 Minutes in Heaven, Mission Impossible III and the planned MI:IV, Star Trek the first and the upcoming Star Trek sequel. Now he just needs to make a film with a five or six.