From PopEater:

'Super 8' Director J.J. Abrams lays out a tale so clearly inspired by '70s/'80s Steven Spielberg, the legend himself agreed to produce it. A mysterious monster attacks a sleepy Ohio town, and against all odds, some middle-school movie geeks uncover the truth and save their neighbors, and their planet. But the heart of 'Super 8' isn't its spectacular effects. It's the kids in the cast (including exceptional newcomer Joel Courtney as Joe Lamb) who truly bring the film to life. We haven't seen an ensemble of child actors this good since 'Stand by Me,' and that's some serious praise.

Here's some Super 8 cartoon art by Howard M. Shum.

While watching "Super 8," I couldn't help but notice that all the main kids had distinct head shapes. I wonder if that played a part in J.J. Abrams casting them? Of course I had to make them into cartoons. Here are Zach Mills, Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Ryan Lee, Riley Griffiths, and Gabriel Basso.

From Cinema Blend:

After stunning nearly everyone who saw Super 8 with his naturalistic and immediately winning performance, 15-year-old Joel Courtney moved on to play one of American literature's most iconic characters, signing on to star in a new movie adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, this one called Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn. And though Courtney's inexperienced naturalism-- he'd never been in a film before this summer-- was one of the selling points of his performance in Super 8, he'll be joined in the new film by a veteran of the trade.

Variety reports that Jake T. Austin, star of Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place, has signed on to play Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer's best friend and, you may remember, an iconic literary character all his own. At 15 and 16 Austin and Courtney are both a little older than Tom and Huck are as described in Twain's book, but both look convincingly young enough to get the boyhood themes across well enough. Shooting starts this summer in Bulgaria, and it's unclear if the title change is just to emphasize the friendship between the two boys or that the story will be tweaked from Twain's original book.

Both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn have been portrayed onscreen dozens of times, with seemingly every generation getting their own take on the characters. Having been 11 in 1995, I've got some vague but fond memories of Tom and Huck, which starred tween heartthrobs of their day Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Brad Renfro. Congratulations, Joel Courtney-- you've gone from unknown to a modern-day JTT in just a few short months.

Here's an unused poster from "Super 8".

Joel got some new headshots taken while in Vancouver.

We highly recommend Mark Brennan to you if you are in the Northwest. He's amazing.

http://www.markbphoto.com/

From Next Movie:

Teaming up with an A-List producer or director for your very first starring role is not a bad way to start an acting career. Just ask Joel Courtney, the lead kid in J.J. Abrams' "Super 8," who's currently in the beginning stages of racking up every male tween role from here to the end of the Mississippi.

This is known as the "Hailee Steinfeld Effect."

Courtney will ride the success of the sci-fi coming of age tale into one of the most well-known youngster roles in history: Tom Sawyer. The actor will star in writer/director Jo Kastner's new adaptation of "Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn," reports Variety, which is gearing up to shoot this August.

The mischievous character is a creation of legendary American author Mark Twain and appeared in a handful of novels. Which stories Kastner's new movie will cover is unknown, but expect plenty of steamboats, white picket fences and Southern drawl.

The article also reveals that Courtney is in negotiations to join the supernatural thriller "The Healer." In the film, the young actor will play a disgruntled teen who joins his father on a camping trip on to have a run-in with otherworldly forces.

Courtney gained a lot of leverage from his role in "Super 8" and we expect "Tom Sawyer" and "The Healer" to be only the beginning of his lengthy career. So, seriously -- what movie can he do with Hailee Steinfeld?