Steven Spielberg Says He Fought to Stop E.T. Sequel From Being Made
Steven Spielberg Says He Fought to Stop E.T. Sequel From Being Made
Spielberg looked back at 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' alongside star Drew Barrymore as part of a TCM Classic Film Festival event in NYC.
Don't worry, once he's dead and can't stop it Hollywood will thoroughly sh*t over this IP as well with prequels, sequels and spinoffs. They're very patient if there's potential for a cash grab.
Then again, Spielberg isn't so pure -- he CGI'd the guns with walkie-talkies in the re-release didn't he? Can't depict our loving government agents as anything but benevolent, right?
Wasn't it Terry Pr⍺tchett who specifically put in his will that all of his unfinished works (on hard drives) were to be crushed with a steamroller?
His daughter did publish The Shepherd's Crown after his death, but that one was almost completely finished and works great as a finale to the series.
Spielberg later regretted making those changes to ET saying,
"That was a mistake," Spielberg told a master class at the Time 100 Summit in New York City.
"I never should have done that.
"E.T. is a product of its era. No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through.
Also, in another example, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale have the rights to Back to the Future. Universal need there approval for any sequels/remakes which they will strongly refuse. They've also left the legal rights to their estates. So even once they've passed on, the chance of anymore films are basically zero.
The Universal Studios E.T. ride is supposed to be based on the script for E.T. 2. Its basically an acid trip.
It's definitely weird all right. Starts off like you're riding Elliot's bike into the sky and ends up like some hallucinatory trip to ET's home world which is all neon and tie dye with bad animatronics, talking mushrooms and other weirdness.
Despite being trippy it's actually a very nice ride to go on because the lines tend to be short and it's blessedly well airconditioned with the line mimicking standing in a pine forest at night. I can't see the Florida ride lasting much longer because it must be over 30 years old by this point. I think it's only gone that long because that section of the park has been relatively static in terms of development.
ET, ET2, ET3, ETC
In modern times they for sure would have called them ETwo and EThree - Part 1 and EThree - Part 2: Endgame.
In the 90s it would have been E2T and a huge ship of ETs would have blown up New York with a big laser because they wanted revenge for kidnapping the OG ET.
There was a sequel though!
ET, the book of the green planet.
It was a bit weird, shifting into ET's perspective as the main character, but it is a delightful read despite that.
Edit: he mentions it in the article, and I think his opinion that it was a better book than it could ever be as a movie is dead on.
Jo Miran below mentioned this, but they took elements from the book/potential sequel when making the ET ride at Universal.
That's cool as hell :)
And don't forget his species is in the star wars universe. So I'd expect a Jedi E.T.