10 Movie Directors Who Cast Actors As Cinematic Versions Of Themselves
9. J.J. Abrams Is Joel Courney In Super 8
JJ Abrams was born into Hollywood royalty, with TV producing parents, but he got his start as a bit actor and a script doctor in Hollywood, penning Regarding Henry, Gone Fishin' and appearing in such films as Six Degrees of Separation. Before that, however, he was just a film nerd who loved to shoot little movies on a Super 8 camera.
This gave birth to his somewhat cynical love-letter to Steven Spielberg, Super 8, featuring a group of young boys who make horror movies with a camera before accidentally stumbling into the middle of a real one.
His love of Spielberg is evident in the relationship between young Joel Courtney's relationship with his distant, grieving father - he was the one who got the Spielberg elevator pitch. But Courtney's love of cinema is all Abrams, putting together no-budget pictures and making models and props in his movie poster-covered bedroom. He's really an amalgam of all the kids in the film, each taking a role in film production.
Since, Abrams has been living out Courtney's dreams, investing in, producing, writing and directing further adventures of the posters that surely adorned his walls.