18 Things You Never Knew About E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL

[erik]

Here are eighteen things you might never have known about director Steven Spielberg's sci-fi masterpiece E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, which was released 35 years ago on this date (June 11, 1982):

www.moviefone.com/2017/06/10/et-steven-spielberg-facts/

[the Scribe]

Thomas, who says not a day goes by when someone doesn't say to him, "E.T. phone home," noted in 2012 that, "if the film had been made in present-day Hollywood, it would have been at least a trilogy," says Henry. "But I think a sequel would have ­cheapened it. What would happen? E.T. would come back? Or Elliot would go on vacation with him? It could be like an intergalactic ­reunion with Elliott and E.T. at a beach resort." He added that he'd even return to play Elliott if Spielberg ever asked. "I don't think Spielberg will touch it, although I'd love to see Elliott and E.T. ­sitting at the end of the bar: 'How's it been for you man? Good man, another beer?'"

While I am not one for movies I would like to see a well done sequel.

[erik]

Quote by ronstadtfanaz:

While I am not one for movies I would like to see a well done sequel.

It would only work for me if Spielberg himself does that sequel, and he says it's not going to happen, for the reasons Henry Thomas cited.

And in any case, it really is a once-in-a-generation kind of a film. Spielberg made E.T. for what must seem like pennies today, at $10.5 million, and it has since made close to $1.1 billion. I actually saw it on the day it opened, and then again on my 12th birthday a little more than a month later, and I really loved it. Nowadays when I see it (and I saw it shown at the Hollywood Bowl back in 2015 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing the film's John Williams score in sync with the film), I find even more about it that's fascinating and intriguing.

The opening scenes in the forest, where E.T. and his friends are foraging around, is shot by Spielberg at almost ground level from their point of view, in a way that is almost Hitchcock-like (it is known that Hitchcock was one of those directors that Spielberg was influenced by the most).

The scene in which Drew Barrymore meets E.T. for the first time and screams is one of the few times in any film where I have felt like screaming and laughing at the same time. It's priceless. So too is her later comment on the alien's gluttonous habits ("Is he a pig? He sure eats like one").

And the house where E.T. was sheltered actually does exist; it is located on a cul-de-sac in Tujunga, in the northeast part of the San Fernando Valley. Almost eight years ago, however, the monstrous Station Fire came within 200 yards of the perimeter of the house.