Last night we published one of the first descriptions of the super secret teaser trailer for JJ Abrams‘ Super 8 (you can read that description here, although I urge you to see it on the big screen in front of Iron Man 2 if you have the patience/will power to do so). We now have even more information  about the project.

We’ve previously confirmed:

• It is not a Cloverfield sequel or prequel.
• It is written and directed by JJ Abrams.
• Yes, produced by Steven Spielberg, along with Bryan Burk and Abrams
• It will be released in 2011 as an Amblin Entertainment (not Dreamworks) release (Paramount Pictures Distributing, Bad Robot Producing)
• This will be an homage/tribute to Spielberg’s 1970’s/1980’s Amblin films, like Close Encounters of a Third Kind and E.T. Imagine combining that with the characters, mystery and supernatural spin of Abrams.
• And it takes place in the late 1979.
• I’ve seen the trailer and it really does feel like a Spielberg film from the Amblin-era, but at the same time you can also see Abrams fingerprints.

New Information:

• The trailer was shot independently of the film a month ago, and the special effects were done under the cover of Abrams new NBC series Undercovers
• Variety says the film will begin principal photography in Fall 2010.
• The film’s actual budget is in the range of $45 million-$50 million.
• It will be shot traditionally, and not through a handheld Super 8 Camera ala Cloverfield.
• It will be released in Summer 2011. The release date could be May 27, 2011. I say this because Paramount, just today, pushed Mission Impossible 4 out of that date, and back to December, leaving the slot open.
• HeatVision says that actual movie has something to do with “the possibility that a group of kids in 1979 are playing around making movies with their Super 8 cameras (as Abrams and Spielberg did as kids) and accidentally capture something … sinister, on film.” This certainly gels with Vulture’s original theory on the trailer.