Had there been an “ET” sequel, Steven Spielberg would have made the titular alien not just call home but go home. In the end, Spielberg had no desire to direct a follow-up to his iconic 1982 film — and he had just enough sway to put his foot down.
The author said during the TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY (via The Hollywood Reporter) that “ET” was a surprise hit.
“There was no pressure. I had low expectations,” says Spielberg. “I thought I was making a real youth film. I wasn’t expecting a checkout, I simply wanted to get this thing through my system and out into my world. It didn’t have to be in your world; I just wanted to make the film for me.”
Naturally, the studio wanted more. Although Spielberg says he “just didn’t want to make a sequel”, he thought about what one would look like.
“I flirted with it for a little bit — just a little bit to see if I (could) come up with a story — and the only thing I could think of was a book written by someone who wrote the book for it called ‘The Green Planet, which would all take place at E.T.’s home,” he said. “We could all go to E.T.’s home and see how E.T. lived. But it was better as a novel than I think it would have been as a movie.”
“ET” won four Oscars and became the first film to earn more than $300 million at the US box office. The global hit was highly personal for Spielberg.
“That was my story“, he said. “It wasn’t George Lucas’ story, it wasn’t Peter Benchley’s story, it was my story. I had just done a number of very difficult productions (with ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ being the most recent), and I didn’t think this would be a difficult film to make, but it was something that came to my heart. That was something I thought about.”
And it was something that he “struggled” to keep in just one film.
“It was a real hard-fought victory because I didn’t have any rights. Before ‘ET,’ I had some rights, but I didn’t have a lot of rights, he said. “I kind of didn’t have what we call ‘the freeze,’ where you can stop the studio from making a sequel because you control the freeze on sequels, remakes and other related uses of the IP. I didn’t have that. I got it after ‘ET’ because of its success.”
“ONE” star Drew Barrymorewho was in conversation with Spielberg at the event, recalled being told there would be no “ET 2” at the time.
“I remember you saying, ‘We’re not doing a sequel to ‘ET,’ I think I was eight,” Barrymore said. “I remember thinking, ‘OK, that’s sad, but I totally get it.’ I thought it was a smart choice. I understand that a lot. Where do we go from here? They should just compare it to the first and leave something perfectly alone in isolation for review. It made so much sense.”
She added that “ET” is the film she is most proud of.
“I think ‘ET’ for me is the one I’m most proud of because it’s the one that changed my life. There’s no doubt about it, says Barrymore. “Everything in my life is about how I was made to believe by a human being, and that’s the life I try to honor every day.”
