Director J.J. Abrams will release his new movie Super 8 in theaters on June 10, and one can easily tell that sci-fi movies from the l970s and 1980s served as inspiration for this genre tale. The director recently spoke about the movies which inspired Super 8, including Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Jaws. Here's what the director had to say about growing up in 1979, the year Super 8 is set in, and how that impacted him.

"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."

J.J. Abrams also listed The Thing, Scanners, Slumber Party Massacre, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial as the movies which most inspired Super 8. The director spoke about the current trends in movie marketing, and how he misses the days where the audience knows little about a movie before seeing 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?"

CLICK HERE to read the entire article, where J.J. Abrams elaborates on how each specific movie influenced Super 8.