According to a joint press release, Paramount Pictures and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions have agreed to an extension of their exclusive, first-look agreement through December 2015. The deal looks to be incredibly lucrative for both sides.

“J.J. is a unique talent and a captivating storyteller,” said Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures. “J.J., Bryan Burk and the whole Bad Robot team are an integral part of Paramount and we’re proud to continue our collaboration. Their pictures have extraordinary resonance around the world and we’re so pleased Paramount will be their home for years to come.”

Bad Robot Productions’ original first look deal with Paramount began in 2006. Since then we have had releases of a variety of successful films and franchise continuations. Considering that grosses on Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol are now $670M globally, while those for the Star Trek reboot hit $385M worldwide, it is no surprise that Paramount is excited about the continuation of this deal. Under the previous Paramount deal, Abrams also had made Cloverfield and Super 8, both of which did well at the global box office.

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Found footage movies have been getting worse and worse lately. They one thing they have in common is that they have all been set in the horror or sci-fi genre. But what happens when there’s a supernatural superhero spin on a classic tale using the found footage storytelling device?

That’s what Fox’s newest film Chronicle discovers. The film is definitely made for the the MTV demographic, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be enjoyed by the geeky generation as well. Here’s a synopsis.

Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to them developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities, and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of control, and their darker sides begin to take over.

The film comes from Josh Trank, the director behind the popular John Leguizamo miniseries Kill Point and is set to hit theaters on February 3rd. Take a look at the awesome trailer after the jump.

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The original Twilight Zone is one of those classic shows that will always be considered as creepy and intellectual as it was back when it first aired. Several reincarnations of the series ended up falling flat to the episodes that Rod Sterling himself presented back in the early 1960s.

For many, the franchise was rejuvinated in 1983 when a series of directors collaborated together to put together a massive anthology film. Warner Bros. is hoping to jump start the franchise’s popularity once again with a new film, helmed by Cloverfield director Matt Reeves.

Here’s the catch: It won’t be an anthology. Deadline has the exclusive:

Let Me In and Cloverfield director Matt Reeves has been chosen by Warner Bros to direct The Twilight Zone, the Jason Rothenberg-scripted thriller based on the classic Rod Serling TV series. Negotiations will get underway early next week, but this is an assignment that was coveted by a number of top directors.

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While we may have a pretty deep review of the flick later today, there are still plenty of us who are waiting impatiently to see exactly what kind of magic can happen when screen legends J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg team up on a sci-fi picture in Super 8.

Much like Abrams’ last big original sci-fi flick Cloverfield, this film has been shrouded in some pretty deep mystery since we first got a glimpse of the trailer back in January. Here’s what we have for a synopsis, in case you still aren’t up to speed.

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.

Filled with no-name child actors who will most likely steal the show, the film is as pure as Spielberg’s E.T. was nearly 30 years ago. Check out a brand new featurette on the film after the jump, and be sure to catch Super 8 in theaters starting today.

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Remember that movie The Cabin in the Woods we first told you about almost a year ago? What ever happend to that one?

It had a lot going for it, coming from Cloverfield writer and director Drew Goddard and co-written by the man himself Joss Whedon. It also starts Chris Hemsworth, soon to be seen in Marvel’s Thor extravaganza.

With all that going for it, why haven’t we seen it yet? Well, it was initially postponed for conversion to 3D. Why? Who knows.

Then, it fell victim to MGM’s money troubles and ended up being put on the shelf until the company emerged from its money troubles or found another company to distribute the film. Fortunately, both of those things seems to have happened and Lionsgate has agreed to take on the film and bring it to a waiting audience.

With all this good news we still have a bit of bad. We don’t know the exact release date for the film and we still don’t know exactly what the film is about. However, based on prior experience with films of this type we can guess it involves several attractive people, a cabin, blood, death, creatures and a bit of humor.  Sounds good. I’m in.

In addition to Hemsworth, the film features Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford and Brian White. When we get an official release date, we’ll let you know.

Matt Reeves got put on the map with Cloverfield, solidified his name in the world of horror with his American-ized version of Let The Right One In, titled Let Me In, and now he’s continuing in the trend which so many other great modern directors follow, which is remake a classic story.

This one is slightly different, however, as Matt Reeves is set to do a new version of a classic Ray Nelson short, 8 O’Clock in the Morning, which was the inspiration behind John Carpenter’s 80′s classic They Live. So not a traditional 80s remake, but still a new take on a classic tale. Deadline has the story.

The story is about a man who awakens one morning with the crystal-clear realization that we are surrounded daily by the presence of aliens that are controlling society. It was owned by the studio because it was used as the basis for the 1988 Carpenter film They Live. In that film, aliens were discovered through the use of special glasses. None of that is being used here, and the film is not considered a remake.

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If you’re a fan of J.J. Abrams Clovefield, can’t wait for Super 8 and loved Shaun of the Dead, chances are you will also enjoy director Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block. Fortunately, you will soon get a chance to prove that theory as the film has been picked up for distribution by Sony through its Screen Gems division.

The film, which won the Midnight Feature Audience Award at SXSW, tells the story of a gang of tough inner-city kids in London who battle a bunch of invading aliens. Sounds cool, right?

Said Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper: “Steve Bersch screened this film for me and I fell completely in love with it. The film is, at once, charming, scary, funny, hip, clever and completely hits its mark. I hope this is the beginning of a long relationship with these incredibly talented filmmakers.”

Click through to check out the trailer if you haven’t already seen it. Even if you have, it’s worth another look. As for the film, it features Nick Frost and kids beating the crap out of invading aliens. How can it not be good?

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Last night’s Super Bowl brought in a few pretty great commercials, but two that stood out above the rest were the first trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger, and the brand new J.J. Abrams sci-fi thriller Super 8. On both counts, we got some of the very first footage of the film, getting us even more excited for it.

Written and directed by Abrams, the film’s plot has been kept pretty close to chest until now. From what we’ve gathered, a group of kids in 1979 catch something inexplicable emerge from a train wreck on their home video camera.

The big deal here is that this is the first joint venture between Abrams and master of extraterrestrial cinema, Steven Spielberg, who brings his experience and belief in unknown casting to the project.

Now, we get the first glimpse at this new film, and you will too, right after the jump.

Super 8 is set to hit theaters on June 10th.

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This weekend may be a tough choice at the box office for most theater-goers. But if you’re looking for a film that will blow your eyeballs right out of your sockets, it looks like Rogue Pictures’ Skyline may be that film.

Directed by the team of Colin and Greg Strause, the SFX brothers who have worked on films like Avatar to Iron Man 2, the film is setting itself to be an epic alien invasion movie in the vain of Cloverfield, Independence Day, and War of the Worlds. Just imagine if Roland Emmerich or Matt Reeves knew, from personal experience, what was possible in the scheme of digital effects.

There isn’t much to the story that we haven’t seen before, but the element to keep an eye out for here is the use of CG effects and how an entire film can play into that world. We’ve got two spoiler-free clips for you to check out after the jump.

Be sure to catch Skyline in theaters everywhere this Friday.

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At the risk of repeating myself too much I will again express my love for a film festival in Austin, TX known as Fantastic Fest. It features some of the best and most innovative programming and events of any festival I’ve been to and is also a whole lot of fun. So naturally, whenever there’s news from the fest, as their is today, I’m going to share it.

With that in mind comes today’s news. Fantastic Fest has announced its opening night film and, drum roll please, that film is the vampire thriller Let Me In. The film, directed by Cloverfield‘s Matt Reeves, stars Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins, tells the story of an alienated boy named Owen (Smit-McPhee) who spies on the other residents of his apartment complex. His only friend is his new neighbor, a young girl (Moretz) who lives with her silent father (Jenkins) and who turns out not to be at all what she seems.

The film will screen following a red carpet event and kick off the fest on Thursday, September 23rd at The Paramount Theater in Austin. Knowing the fest as I do this seems like a perfect film to kick things off. Sure, some people may not be into this upcoming remake of the terrific Let the Right One In but as a fan of Reeves’ earlier work on Cloverfield and after having seen some info about this new film, I’m convinced this was a great way to go.

Fantastic Fest runs from September 23-30 in Austin, Texas. Check out the full press release after the jump.

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Some could say that one of the best elements of 2008′s Cloverfield was the immense viral marketing and alternate reality games that lead up to the film’s release. It seems that the same marketing team behind that film is at it again for J.J. Abram’s upcoming sci-fi thriller Super 8.

The film’s plot is shrouded in a good amount of mystery, but what we’ve gleaned is that the story follows two young men who capture something they weren’t meant to see on a super 8 home video camera, which leads to all kinds of chaos.

A few months back, an ARG popped up site that seems to be made for the film over at www.scariestthingieversaw.com. Once clicked on, the site becomes a vintage code screen that takes you to a dead end after about 5 minutes of execution lines. There are tons of different commands that take you to several puzzling files, but overall the site was done as a major viral marketing plan.

One of the cool things at the viral site is if you enter the command .PRINT SCOM8. Two sheets are sent to your printer of a vintage newspaper with an ad for The Rocket Poppeteeers. If you signed up, you’d get a letter welcoming you as a new member of the Poppeteer Astronaut Program.

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When it comes to Americanized remakes or reboots of other country’s films I tend to think we should wait at least a few years before launching said remake. After all, other countries do have a film production business as well and we don’t always do it better here in the USA. Still, with Hollywood struggling to find ideas that work, we do end up remaking other country’s movies pretty frequently.

Case in point is director Matt Reeves remake of the 2008 Swedish horror film Let the Right One In. His version, known as Let Me In, covers pretty much the same ground as the original as you can see from the new international trailer that has appeared and we’re bringing to you today.

The trailer, courtesy of Deadline, gives us some insight into the film’s story of a boy who realizes the pretty girl next door is actually a vampire and let’s us know this one is going for the scary, moody, suspense of the director’s first film Cloverfield and the original film. And, in spite of my feelings on remakes like this, this trailer actually looks pretty good.

Check out the new international trailer after the break. Let Me In hits theaters on October 1st.

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