J.J. Abrams Talks 'Super 8' Trailer, 'Star Trek 2,' 'Alcatraz' And More

J.J. Abrams is so notoriously mysterious that whenever he opens his mouth about upcoming projects, you'd better listen closely. The producer/director extraordinaire sat down with Collider at the recent Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour and talked about why he has yet to commit to directing Star Trek 2, when we'll see the Super 8 trailer, his upcoming TV pilot Alcatraz, revealed the name of his upcoming Jonah Nolan show and more. There are some must read quotes after the jump.Big thanks to Collider for getting all of this out of Abrams. Check out their site for his thoughts on the Lost finale, the failure of Undercovers, Fringe moving to Friday's and more but here are the biggest quotes to come out of the interview.

Abrams said the main reason he hasn't committed to directing Star Trek 2 yet is a simple one: he hasn't seen the script. That seems incredible, since it was supposed to be due last month, but it's true. So Collider asked what was the biggest proponent that will go into deciding if he wants to direct the film or not?

I guess the idea of not wanting to choose to direct a film, for which I've not read a script. It's a tough decision to make without seeing any pages. That's not to say that I don't have all the faith in the world in the spectacular writers. Damon Lindelof, Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman are awesome. My hope is that they'll write the script, it will be great and we can make a fun, exciting sequel to Star Trek.

He also said that we should see a Super 8 trailer in March and around then is probably his own personal deadline to decide if he wants to direct Star Trek 2 or not.

After discussing some of the TV he's already been involved in, he got to talking about into all the projects Bad Robot has in the pipeline. We know about all of this stuff, but I think it's the first time a title has been given to the Jonah Nolan show.

We have a few projects. We have a show for Fox called Alcatraz, that starts shooting on the 19th, which I could not be more excited about. And, we have a show for CBS called Person of Interest, that Jonah Nolan wrote. We have Odd Jobs for NBC. And we have a new script called Pulp, that was written by Alison Schapker and Monica Breen. That's a spectacular script. We're about to go out with that.

Odd Jobs, with Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn, is currently being written by they hope to have a pilot done for this season. Which is cutting it very close if it's still in the script stage.

Finally, Abrams had a lot, and nothing, to say about Alcatraz. Again, most of this we already knew, but it's still good to hear from the man himself. He did reveal that some of the pilot will shoot at the infamous prison and shooting begins on the 19th.

I don't want to give anything away because no one wants to hear that, but I will say that it's a beautifully written and surprisingly emotional script, although not surprising when you know that Liz Sarnoff wrote it. She's amazing. The show is about an incredibly odd and mysterious turn and secret about the prison of Alcatraz, and a modern-day mystery that involves something very odd that happened there 50 years ago.

The cast is unbelievable. It's Sam Neill, Sarah Jones, Jorge Garcia from Lost – who was the first person we cast and is just the greatest with an amazing role – and Johnny Coyne, who's an amazing English actor. We have a spectacular cast. There are a number of other actors and it is wonderful. I'm really excited about the show.

And while he's being coy about the plot, it's been released that the show is about a group of Alcatraz prisoners who disappeared 30 years ago and reappear in modern times. It will then focus on FBI agents tasked with hunting them down to find out exactly what happened.

Out of all these projects, which are you most looking forward to? And do you really think Abrams is going to say no to Star Trek 2?