Steven Spielberg has revealed that he considered the idea of making an E.T. sequel set in space – and the studio wanted him to do so too.
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Reuniting with Drew Barrymore, who had a role in the classic 1982 movie as a child, at the TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY, he explained that he ultimately realized a sequel wouldn’t have been right.
The director explained about his fight to prevent a sequel: “That was a real hard-fought victory because I didn’t have any rights. Before E.T., I had some rights, but I didn’t have a lot of rights. 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 ancillary uses of the IP. I didn’t have that. I got it after E.T. because of its success.”
He continued: “I just did not want to make a sequel,” he continued. “I flirted with it for a little bit – just a little bit to see if I [could] think of a story – and the only thing I could think about was a book that was written by [‘E.T.’ author William Kotzwinkle] called ‘The Green Planet’, which was all going to take place at E.T.’s home. We were all going to be able to 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 film.”
Drew Barrymore and Steven Spielberg speak onstage during the TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY at 92nd Street Y on January 25, 2025 in New York City. CREDIT: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for TCM
Kotzwinkle released ‘The Book Of The Green Planet’ in 1985, after he wrote the novelisation of the movie. In the book, E.T. returns to his home planet to find it’s not what he remembers leaving, and he continues to watch Elliot, his human friend, grow up from afar.
Also in his chat with Barrymore, Spielberg reminisced about her impressive improv ability as a six-year-old. He said: “The camera was rolling and Drew said, ‘I don’t like his feet.’ We used it. Drew made up a lot of her own dialogue because she was irrepressible.”
For her part, Barrymore said even she was surprised by how much of her improvisation ended up in the film’s final cut.
While E.T. came out over 40 years ago, it remains one of Spielberg’s biggest successes and most-loved films, along with movies like Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Saving Private Ryan. It won four Oscars and became the highest-grossing film of all time – a record it held until Jurassic Park overtook it in 1993 – grossing almost $800million globally.
The tear-jerker won four Oscars in 1982, including best visual effects and original score. It was a massive hit, drawing in more than $359 million at the US box office at the time, according to Box Office Mojo.
Spielberg has often looked back on the movie in the years since, and in 2022 explained that his parents’ divorce helped inspire it.
His parents divorced in 1966, the year he turned 20, and he said: “A divorce creates great responsibility, especially if you have siblings; we all take care of each other. What if Elliott, or the kid – I hadn’t dreamt up his name yet – needed to, for the first time in his life, become responsible for a life form to fill the gap in his heart?”
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