E.T. a beloved childhood favourite of everyone who is the right age to have experienced it. It came about after the success of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind - director Steven Spielberg was invited to make a sequel, but was not keen to do so. He was still interested in the subject of alien encounters, though, and decided that his Close Encounters follow up would take the idea into the realm of horror. What emerged was a script called Night Skies, centered around a group of malicious extra terrestrials terrorising a human family. The character that would become E.T. did feature as a good-natured alien who befriends the family while his kin try to destroy them. In the end Spielberg was convinced by his friend Melissa Mathison to concentrate on the friendly alien, and so the horror elements were pared back in favour of the gentle, emotional movie we've come to know and love. Speilberg did later re-use elements of Night Skies for Poltergeist (which he produced) and had planned a much darker E.T. sequel with the working title Nocturnal Fears that never saw the light of day, presumably because someone pointed out that following a family friendly sentimental movie with a sequel of intense supernatural horror is a terrible idea. It's a good thing Spielberg does seem to listen to the advice of those around him.
David is an office drone and freelance writer for WhatCulture and Moviepilot, among others. He's also foolishly writing a serialised novel on Jukepop and has his own irregularly updated website. He's available for freelance work. Reach out on Twitter to @davefox990
