JJ Abrams | No 13 | Film Power 100
Creator: Lost
Director: Star Trek, Mission: Impossible III
Producer: Cloverfield
Lost may be no more, but its creator, JJ Abrams, 44, shows no sign of relinquishing his position as the presiding genius of nerd culture. Whether in cinema or television, his interest and the involvement of his company, Bad Robot Productions, are enough to sprinkle magic dust over any project.
Abrams was just a cog in the wheel of someone else's franchise when he directed Mission: Impossible III, but his masterful and knowing reboot of Star Trek finally gave Trekkers, and the world at large, the Trek picture they had deserved all along. Add to that his producing input on the shaky-cam monster movie Cloverfield, and TV series such as Alias, Fringe and the upcoming Undercovers, and you have a man who knows how to play the geek vote for all it's worth.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the marketing strategy for his new film, Super 8, a collaboration with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. A spokesperson for Paramount has described the film as being inspired by movies Abrams "loved and admired as a teenager", but all that the world has seen so far is a mysterious trailer coupled with the tagline: "Next summer, it arrives." Abrams proved long ago that he never underestimates the power of the tease; what sets him apart, as demonstrated by everything from Lost to Star Trek, is that he can also deliver the goods.