E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

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E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Trivia

Though many have suggested that the film contains elements of Christian allegory, director Steven Spielberg says any parallels are strictly coincidental. Furthermore, Spielberg adds that if he ever made a Christian allegory, his mother, a devout Jew would probably never forgive him.
At the 20th anniversary re-release premier, John Williams conducted a live orchestra as the film played, much like an orchestra would do for a stage musical.
The script was largely written whilst on location filming for Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark during filming breaks. Steven Spielberg dictated the story to screenwriter Melissa Mathison who was there with her then-boyfriend and future husband Harrison Ford.
Was voted the 20th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Steven Spielberg shot most of the film from the eye-level of a child to further connect with Elliot and E.T.
In 1967 Satyajit Ray wrote a script for a movie entitled "The Alien". Columbia Pictures was in talks to produce this movie. Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando were rumored to play the leading parts. However, Ray was surprised to find that the script he had written had already been copyrighted as a co-written work and the fee appropriated. The other 'writer' credited for the script was Mike Wilson - a friend of Sci-Fi author Arthur C. Clarke and it was credited as "Mike Wilson and Satyajit Ray", in that order. According to Ray, Wilson's only contribution to the script was his suggestion of the word "broad" instead of "chick" at one place in the script. Wilson had initially approached Ray as a promoter for the film in Hollywood and negotiated with Columbia. Later Brando dropped out of the project and, though an attempt was made to bring James Coburn in his place, Ray was disillusioned, had enough of Hollywood machinations and returned to Calcutta. Columbia was interested in reviving the project in the 1970s and 1980s but nothing came of it. When E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was released in 1982, many, including Arthur C. Clarke, saw striking similarities in the film to Ray's earlier script. Ray believed that Steven Spielberg's movie "would not have been possible without my script of 'The Alien' being available throughout America in mimeographed copies." Spielberg denied this by saying, "I was a kid in high school when this script was circulating in Hollywood".
ET's communicator actually worked, and was constructed by Henry Feinberg, an expert in science and technology interpretation for the public.
Steven Spielberg is reported to have spent $100,000 digitally removing guns from the 20th Anniversary re-release of the movie in 2002. He regretted using the scene and said he would remove it if he ever re-issued the film.
E.T. riding in the basket on Elliot's bicycle flying in front of the moon has become the trademark image of Amblin Entertainment.
Most of the full-body puppetry was performed by a 2' 10 tall stuntman, but the scenes in the kitchen were done using a 10-year old boy who was born without legs but was an expert on walking on his hands.
Was the highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide until Spielberg's Jurassic Park was released.
With the exception of Elliot's mom, no adults' faces are shown until the last half of the film.
When it was test-screened at the Cannes Film Festival as an unofficial entry, it brought the house down, receiving a standing ovation that had eluded most of the official entries.
C. Thomas Howell's film debut.
The filmmakers had requested that M&M's be used to lure E.T., instead of Reese's Pieces. The Mars company had denied their request and so Reese's Pieces were used instead. As a direct result, Reese's Pieces sales skyrocketed. Because of this, more and more companies began requesting that their products be used in movies. Thus, product placement was born.
John Sayles wrote a semi-sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind called 'Night Skies', about a group of hostile aliens that come to Earth and lay siege to an isolated farmhouse where a terrified family has barricaded itself inside. Spielberg decided not to go ahead with the rather dark project, but a subplot about the relationship between the lone good alien and an autistic boy inspired him to redevelop the concept as 'E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial".
The late Michael Jackson owned one of the E.T. puppets.
The gag where the mother looks in the closet and sees the alien surrounded by toys was dreamed up by Robert Zemeckis.
Steven Spielberg's original concept was for a much darker movie in which a family was terrorized in their house by aliens. When Spielberg decided to go with a more benevolent alien, the family-in-jeopardy concept was recycled as Poltergeist.
At the auditions, Henry Thomas thought about the day his dog died to express sadness. Director Steven Spielberg cried, and hired him on the spot.
Peter Coyote's character's name is never revealed, and is referred to as "Keys" in the novelization and end credits because he is identified by wearing a key-chain in the first half of the movie.
Voted number 1 in Channel 4's (UK) "Greatest Family Films"
Steven Spielberg stated in an interview that E.T. was a plant-like creature, and neither male or female.
Harrison Ford was initially intended to have a cameo role in the film as Elliot's school headmaster, but the scene was cut.
The origin of E.T. lies within Steven Spielberg's abandoned science-fiction horror thriller "Night Skies", which was to be directed by cartoonist 'Ron Cobb (I)' and written by John Sayles, with special effects by Rick Baker. Spielberg eventually dropped the evil aliens and had only a good alien in the final film.
Elliot's last name is never mentioned.
In the doorway conversation between Keys, played by Peter Coyote, and Gertie, played by Drew Barrymore, Keys asks Gertie if there are any "Coyotes" in the neighborhood.
This script was being developed at Columbia at the same time as another script about an alien visitation. The studio did not want to make both, so the head of the studio had to choose which film to make; he decided to let ET go and make Starman. ET was then made by Universal Pictures.
ET's plants included some made from inflated condoms with polyester blooms.
Juliette Lewis auditioned for the role of Gertie, but her father reportedly made her turn it down.
When the film was released on video in the U.S., the cassette was made from green plastic as a measure to confound video pirates. By December 31st 1988, it had sold 15 million.
DIRTRADE(Steven Spielberg):[music] The music is composed by John Williams.
Debra Winger not only provided the temp voice for E.T. but also played one of the ghouls in the Halloween sequence. She is wearing a monster mask and a lab coat and carries a poodle.
The end of the film was one of the most significant musical experiences for composer 'John Williams (I)'. After several attempts were made to match the score to the film, Steven Spielberg took the film off the screen and encouraged Williams to conduct the orchestra the way he would at a concert. He did, and Spielberg slightly re-edited the film to match the music, which is unusual since normally the music would be edited to match the film. The result was Williams winning the 1982 Academy Award for Best Original Score.
Elvis Costello was asked by Q music magazine March 2008 if he was paid handsomely for the use of Accidents Will Happen of which two lines were sung by Michael (Robert MacNaughton) when he is looking in the fridge. He replied: "No, I don't think they offered any money. We had no way of knowing it was going to be so huge so there was the chance we'd given it for nothing and they'd use it for some big production number. Haha! But you really have to paying attention to notice."
Steven Spielberg worked simultaneously on both this film and Poltergeist in 1982 (which was directed by Tobe Hooper but produced by Spielberg), and both were made to complement each other. "E.T." represented suburban dreams, and "Poltergeist" represented suburban nightmares.
In mid 2009, the home featured in the film, located in the Tujunga Canyon was saved from immolation in the treacherous Station Fire. The owner of the residence said the scorched hill behind the house "looks like the surface of the moon," but that the structure itself incurred no damage in the wildfire, which up to that time had burned over 127,000 acres and claimed 62 homes.
Steven Spielberg was originally going to have M&Ms in the movie but the Mars company turn down the offer, so Spielberg went to Hersheys for Reese's candy and the company took the offer
Almost 10% of the $10.5 million budget went on the alien creature puppets and related animatronics.
The young actors (Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, and Robert MacNaughton) found the ET puppet's eyes too far apart to comfortably look ET in the eye when they had to act with it. The actors solved the problem themselves by selecting a single eye to look at for every scene.
E.T. provided the inspiration for Neil Diamond's song "Heartlight" but no mention is ever made of the movie in the lyrics.
James Taylor wrote a song intended for use in the movie called "Song For You". The song was ultimately not used in the movie. However, it was eventually recorded in the mid 1980's for release on his 'That's Why I'm Here' album.
For the re-release Steven Spielberg had all the guns removed from the film because he did not like having guns around kids, and believed that there was already too much gun violence in the world.
The working title for the film was "A Boy's Life". It was changed during production.
ET's face was modeled after poet Carl Sandburg, Albert Einstein and a pug dog.
Steven Spielberg asked Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones to contribute a song for the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Story Book Album. Spielberg was so pleased with their song "Someone in the Dark" that he asked them to make the entire album, which, in spite of the size of the task, they agreed to do. This boxed set included an LP, a book to read along with it and a poster of E.T. and Jackson. Epic Records allowed Jackson to record the album for MCA Records on the conditions that it not be released until after Christmas of 1982 so as to not compete with Thriller and that "Someone in the Dark" not be released as a single. Both of the conditions were breached by MCA Records; they released the storybook in November 1982 and gave promo copies of "Someone In the Dark" to radio stations. MCA Records were forced to withdraw the album and were prohibited from releasing "Someone In the Dark" as a single after court action was taken by Epic against them in a $2 million lawsuit, which MCA settled by paying Epic chief Walter Yetnikoff $500,000. Jones claims neither he nor Jackson received a dime for making the record, in spite of the large cash settlement involved and its considerable success: The audio book earned Jackson a Grammy Award in 1984 for Best Recording for Children. Upon collecting the award, and taking home a record eight Grammys from an unprecedented twelve nominations, the singer stated that of all the awards had gotten that night, he was "most proud of this one".
Steven Spielberg personally screened his film at the White House for Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis.
This film is ranked as #6 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers, and as #3 on the AFI's top 10 science fiction films.
Foley Artist John Roesch said he used a wet T-shirt crammed with jello to simulate the noise of E.T.'s waddling walk.
E.T.'s voice was provided by Pat Welsh, an elderly woman who lived in Marin County, California. Welsh smoked two packets of cigarettes a day, which gave her voice a quality that sound effects creator Ben Burtt liked. She spent nine-and-a-half hours recording her part, and was paid $380 by Burtt for her services. Burtt also recorded 16 other people and various animals to create E.T.'s "voice". These included Spielberg; Debra Winger; Burtt's sleeping wife, who had a cold; a burp from his USC film professor; as well as raccoons, sea otters and horses.