Spielberg News is back! Super 8 cast news and set photos!

All long last we actually have some proper Steven Spielberg news to report.

First things first - cast news and some set photos from Super 8. As we all know, none of us know what JJ Abrams' Steven Spielberg-produced film is about except that it involves kids from a small town and aliens or something.

Well now Vulture has broken the news that Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler and Elle Fanning (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) have nabbed the first roles in the film, which began shooting yesterday in the Marland Heights area of Weirton, West Virginia.

Aint It Cool posted pictures from around the town, including some shots of 1970s-era buses which seem to confirm that JJ Abrams is going all-out to replicate the feeling of Spielberg's films from the 70s and 80s.

If the Spielbergian (I hate that word) setting is central to the plot like it is in Back to the Future or Gremlins or Poltergiest or ET, then I can think of no better actor than Kyle Chandler. I'm a big fan of Friday Night Lights, so I'm delighted that he's getting a role in such a high-profile film. He's got that spirit of smalltown America in spades. See the rest of the AICN photos here.