Inside E.T.'s Horror Sequel and Spielberg's Lost Movies 

It's amazing how many memorable 80s movies not directed by Spielberg have Spielberg's involvement: Gremlins, Goonies, Back to the Future.

What fascinates me is that the Universal Studios parks attractions of ET are basically the closest thing we came to a spiritual sequel of the film. It was overseen by Steven, and the end product was clearly the way to uniquely continue this story but as a totally new, bold and personal experience. There are many videos on RU-vid that go into this. A lot of the best “sequels” and extensions some times aren’t films, but experiences.

Honestly a bit sad Night Skies never happened, but the movies that it inspired are excellent. This history is so fun

I’ve always been glad E.T never got a sequel

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial did get a sequel of sorts - a novel called "The Book of the Green Planet" by William Kotzwinkle, which was about what happened to E.T. when he went home.

Spielberg has influenced the pop culture of the 80s so much. I thank him for the memories, since I was an 80s teen.

1 unmade Spielberg film I wish was made was Arkansas, which was supposed to be a western with Tom Cruise. Spielberg hasn’t done a western, so I always wanted to see what he would have done in that genre

16:21 I learned the Oscars were a joke when Lord of the Rings lost to Chicago for best costumes. Like wtf! One production is buying vintage clothes. The other is making authentic chainmail by hand and crafting fictional cultures down to the most fine detail. Not to mention all the costumes they had to make for effects. Like identical sets for different scales. It's just no contest. The Oscars are just who was the most popular and who simped the hardest to the Academy.

The cancelled ET sequel would be turned into POLTERGEIST and GREMLINS, as both films were produced by Steven Spielberg.

strangely enough there were a couple of fanzine articles about ET II in 83. this plot sounds familiar

Why did that scene with a grown Elliott and his family on the couch with E.T. instantly drive me to tears? I haven't thought about that movie in years but it was everything to me as a 4 year old. ❤

You left out an interesting story. Rick Baker wasn't the only one disappointed when Night Skies shut down. It was supposed to be directed by artist Ron Cobb. To make up for it Cobb was given a profit point in the then forthcoming E.T. which within a couple years made Cobb wealthy for the rest of his life. A friend remarked, "Whenever I saw Ron after that he was always smiling."

I would love to see one on the Original Gremlins script which was an all out horror film - it's an interesting read. It's one film if remade using thst original Horror script would turn out to be an great horror.

I love that you used Fire in the Sky for the ET 2 segment because that's what I had on my mind while watching.

In 1979 I worked with Dino DeLaurentis on "Jaws 3, people 0". Obviously they went with "3D" Instead, but the efx gags were epic.

Could you imagine a Spielberg Bond, Superman film or a horror version of ET?

I laughed out loud so hard listening to the synopsis for E.T. 2... I almost wish the studios had called Spielberg's bluff.

Thank you for making longer videos. This is just pure gold.

11:18 - "...YOU ONLY MOVED THE HEADSTONES!!!! WHYYYYYY!?!?""

My family and I got to meet Steven Spielberg, when we went to a showing of E.T., and I enjoyed meeting him. My parents invited him to eat with us, but he had to politely decline because of his schedule. Even though we enjoyed our visit, and the movie, I will forever be grateful for getting to meet Steven. He was so sweet and kind.

There's a lot of movies that there is no need for sequels.i love how they made close encounters that the ship was actually a city upside down

There are movies that are great that never needed a sequel, this is one of them

Man, all these twists and turns and connections between movies is kind of amazing.

The big twist of the ET sequel would have been ET being a Jedi Master!

I always wondered why Baker never stuck around for E.T.. Tempers and ego's man, they create entirely new realities. Fantastic doc.!!!

I recall Steve was totally changing how movies would work with blockbusters or though he wasn't totally responsible for all blockbusters or the idea for some, and the original blockbusters were mostly based on biblical or science fiction or war novels that came long before Steven was born, but he definitely changed movies in the 80s and how there made through technology and the art media of CGI of later years. Movies are totally inspired by those bygone time movies. Remakes are popular and retelling old stories or making reboots tied to old stories or films that were classics. Steven Spielberg a movie maker and storyteller, has brought many treasures to life in cinemas and on media a blockbusters champion, created some great movies and more importantly gave us a heroes or two, and villains that also have left their mark in movie history. And the films still roll out of the studios and we will continue to watch. Not all are Spielbergs movies, but still inspire us. It has been over a century of movies, almost 5 hundred years since the first movies were born from the 1900s till now? And bit before in 1889 the very first photo and movies and tha very first horror movies in sound etc. Spielberg 1980s to 2024.

Never new he almost directed Superman. Lots of other great stuff in this video. Thank you.

Honey wake up, Bullets & Blockbusters uploaded a new video.

You’re seriously becoming my favorite channel. I’m always stoked when a new video is dropped!

Very cool video. I saw Jaws and Close Encounters in my parent's station wagon at the drive-in across the highway from where I grew up, Raiders and ET at the town theater. I've been a fan of Spielberg's work every since, this video was a real treat. I'm glad I stumbled on your channel. Happy new year to you and yours!

Watching what could be over 700 shark attacks sounds crazy and a real action packed flick. One you could definitely not have filmed back then and would be hard to do even in today. But a jaws prequel over quints tale sounds amazing and really shows mr Spielberg was ahead of the curve for a while. I know the prequel isnt something new but if he would have done it then it would have been a milestone or marker.

Well, the concept for "Night Skies" either had a massive impact on M. Night when he wrote "Signs", or it is one of those massive coincidences that do actually happen.

I had a dream where ET returned to Earth 30 years later. Gertie is now grown up, married and has a little girl around 6 or 7 years old. The girl is told to take out the trash but comes back terrified because a troll in the shed called her Gertie and asked about her uncle, Elliot. That might make for a good sequel. Of course not it would need to be set 40 years later...

Night Skies was intended to be a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, not E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Elements of the unmade Night Skies script ended up being made into Poltergeist, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, and the Stripe character in Gremlins.

I somehow got ahold of the ET2 treatment as a kid. It’s a terrible idea but the idea lived on in my mind. Always felt it was the inspirartion of Gremlins.

Your videos are always spectacular. Even with this topic, where I'd heard a lot of this, it's compiled and edited so well! I'm always excited to see these right when I notice they're available

I'm a big fan of all your videos. They're always extremely interesting. This one was especially good. Lots of great information I've personally never heard before. Awesome job.

Spielberg really should have been given a Bond, James Bond film. there's still the option with the next film. He did get to work with Sean Connery for Indiana Jones and the last crusade, and Indy itself, is Spielberg's answer to Bond. Heck, James Cameron also would have made a good Bond, and technically he did with True Lies.

Excellent video! Although I knew a lot of the background on Spielberg's productions before (I was a big "Cinefantastique" magazine reader, and they covered much of this in depth), there was still a lot of info in your vid that I did not know before. THANKS!

Love your videos, man. And as an Irish person, I really appreciate you making the distinction between British and Irish actors at 14:41

That ET sequel sounds pretty good to me. Funny how Speilberg writes a script that he thinks would be too terrible to be made, but it probably would have been a HUGE HIT. I always figured the GREMLINS must be some kind of Alien invaders even though they never explained their origins. The original NIGHT SKIES story would have been a great film, too.

I always wished Spielberg did SW films. He was going to make ROTJ, and I wish he did. You have Spielberg, George Lucas, and Lawrence Kasdan, the same trio behind Raiders Of The Lost Ark. If they made something that good, ROTJ could have been really epic. He also got offered Phantom Menace, and he would have pulled it off really well had he directed

Can you just imagine if Spielberg had been able to direct Superman. That would have been epic.

I will be eternally greatful that Spielberg chose to keep his promise to George about directing Indy 3, because the Last Crusade is my favorite movie.

You are currently my favorite RU-vid channel. Congrats.

This is becoming the best behind the scenes of cinema channel by far.

The ET Sequel script I had read looked awesome and I would have loved to see it. ET would have came back to Earth with his own family, spouse, 2 daughters and 1 son. His son would have been like an 18 yr old on Earth. Once they arrived back on Earth, shortly after another species of aliens would arrive too but these aliens were not friendly at all and hunted ETs species. About 30 minutes into the movie, after ET met up with Elliot and they make plans for a wonderful time together, right after that moment the new species arrives and takes out ET and literally eats him. The new species cooks ET BBQ style like a pig roast over a camp fire. Elliot and ETs son walk over and see the new species eating ET and laughing about it. Then ETs son plans revenge and this is the moment the ET Sequel turns into like a Quentin Tarantino blood fest. Definitely a wild Sequel and wish we would have got it.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there a ET Christmas special that went on some random streaming service

Always excited about a new video dude. Great job. So cool.

Good work. Like how quiet the background music is, it's chill. Subbed :)

Great video, as always! Great pacing, delivery and amount of juicy info. Couple of additional things: although Spielberg approached Cubby Broccoli after his successes with Jaws and Close Encounters, he originally approached him in 1974 about directing the next one. At this point his only theatrical release was The Sugarland Express, so for that reason Broccoli turned him down (the film although well reviewed didn't make a ton of money). However Spielberg had been on EON'S radar since 1971. Cubby's Stepson Michael G Wilson saw Duel in a cinema as it was extended and released theatrically in Europe. He was so blown away by Spielberg's direction, that he quite prophetically thought this guy is the future of film-making. He told Cubby about Duel, but for whatever reason no attempt was made to contact Spielberg. Finally his last encounter with Bond came when United Artists were trying to get him to sign a multi-picture deal. They used Bond as the carrot, but Spielberg pulled out when George Lucas told him Raiders was ready to be pitched to the studios. Although Gremlins shares some story elements with Night Skies the film originates from an original screenplay by Chris Columbus. Columbus wasn't hired to develop the idea for Spielberg as he'd written the script on spec as just a writing sample to show what he was capable of. Spielberg said it was one of the most original scripts he'd read and bought it. E.T itself has been said to have been somewhat inspired by a script for an unmade movie called The Alien. Written by and intended to be filmed by legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, it circulated Hollywood in the late 60's when he was trying to get funding for it. Spielberg denied seeing the script saying he was in High School when it was floating round Hollywood. But that's not actually true, as he graduated High School in 1965, and when copies of the script were being distributed around, he was already working for Universal. Spielberg denies ever seeing the script, but even if he didn't in the late 60's, he may have afterwards as the script remained much talked about in Hollywood. Amazingly Spielberg's friend Martin Scorsese endorsed this when he said in an interview that "I have no qualms in admitting that E.T. was influenced by Ray's Alien. Even Sir Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park) pointed this out to me". The Times Of India who printed this interview themselves said Close Encounters also had "remarkable parallels with The Alien". Spielberg also offered Schindler's List to Sydney Pollack and to Roman Polanski, a real life Holocaust Survivor who turned it down because it was too close to his own experience. He would later change his position to make his own Oscar Winning film about The Holocaust, The Pianist. Robert De Niro wasn't cast as the lead in Cape Fear by Martin Scorsese bearing in mind how many films they've made together, but by Spielberg when he was still attached. Spielberg was at one time planning to direct Big but starring Harrison Ford! He pulled out as the script was written by his sister Ann, he didn't want to overshadow her achievement. In the 90's, Spielberg developed a Doctor Who movie that never happened, being a fan of the series. He was also in line to direct Little Shop Of Horrors. And also an animated version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Cats.

It's easy to have read this info about Spielberg over the years, a piece at a time, but damn this is really, really well made story here, and puts all those events into a timeline and with context. Nice job. Fun watch.

No disrespect to Jaws but I always felt that Goldfinger was first true blockbuster.

Brilliant stuff ❤ Always interesting on your channel

I love these behind the scenes, did you know? Type videos, well done! Subbed!

Excellent video! Pretty top-notch on TOP of being rather informative. I'm pretty surprised, you did not at least quickly mention that _A.I._ had been Kubrick's next film project after he'd finished _Eyes Wide Shut,_ but when Kubrick died finishing up EWS, Steve agreed/promised to take over _A.I._ directing it...and taking off wherever Kubrick left off or usin' what Kubrick had left behind meant to be used on the film's development/production!!!

I would have been so scared to be even a background character in jaws... would've been a jolly good time.

Thanks for the amazing information ❤

WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOUR CHANNEL ❤❤❤❤❤ THANK YOU 😊

Cool vid! What were some of the movie clips you showed that weren't named? Particularly the alien ones?

I am glad that e.t. never got a sequel

Speilberg is one of the greats

Great stuff. One of your best so far.

4:03 to add to this, John Hancock was hired because of the modest success of *Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)* Hancock's idea was an Amity that was going bankrupt and near deserted, to show the impact of the prior movie events. The people of Provincetown did NOT want to close their shops, and the studios thought that it would be too dour. It's also amazing how much the Hopkinsville incident inspired movies. *Night of the Living Dead (1968)* was inspired by this event, which then led to inspire *Assault on Precinct 13.*

The difference between a good director and a great director: "Shooting on water is hard." Spielberg: Well I'll never do it again. Cameron: Well I'll just do it even more.

Honestly I wish they would release a cut of E.T. that includes more deleted material and the alternate ending.

If he never got an award, I wonder if he could live with the title of "the best director in history".

The first ET was already a horror movie. It traumatized me for years.

For years, i've thought that an ET horror sequel would be amazing if done right because ET was really scary to look at to many kids, and making a bunch of creepy scary ETs is easy... but they should keep them brown. But I dont they have what it takes to make an amazing scary ET film

Hooper directed Poltergeist. As Executive Producer, of course Spielberg had a major influence. The rumour that Spielberg directed came from one guy on the crew. Everyone else has gone on record stating that Tobe Hooper directed.

Great content indeed, thanks for the gem !

I’d like to see a video about Tim Burton’s unmade films.

The e.t sequel sounds good and fun. I wish they made it.

Crazy how Spielberg was going to make a black history pic when he thought Jaws was gonna flop, then ditched it once Jaws was a box office success

19:18 Yep 😅 I THOUGHT I recognized that barn door with the "blinking light" bttf

You forgot that there was a early version of “The Fabelmans” title: “I'll Be Home”. Spielberg development the film in late 90's. The film was also set to be written by Anne Spielberg (the sister of Steven).

E.T.II. He's back, he's pissed off and he DOESN'T wanna phone home!!

Oh my gosh, I just had a flashback: checking out the current and up coming movies in the newspaper

I watched E.T. In the 1st grade I was E.T. crazy, I’m glad there was no sequel let alone a horror version, that would’ve ruined my childhood

Just gotta say ET 2 sounds awesome.

Great video. thanks!

Looking forward to Bullets & Blockbusters' future video about "The Boys in the Boat". Loved the book. Saw years ago that Kenneth Branagh was attached to direct. But, the one coming out next week is directed by George Clooney. I'm curious about how the two versions of this true story were visualized by the two different directors. What was left out? What was emphasized? etc.

Given ET’s species apparently living in the “Star Wars” galaxy, I like to think that’s where E.T returned too…but it happened at the height of the Empire’s reign. When E.T saw that kid in the Yoda costume, he thought it was *the* Yoda and that’s where he’s been hiding this whole time. When he comes home, he starts running his mouth about it, and some higher ups in the Empire *really* wanted to talk to him.

this is a really informative video

Very well researched! I'm enjoying your channel. It's always interesting to see the films that could have been made by a director, and how last minute decisions, infighting, and a host of other events change that.

Cool vid, very interesting and informative!

Hollywood never lets a good idea go to waste.

Very interesting. I grew up on many of these films.

3:16 James Cameron heard this, and was like "I'm going to make a movie underwater, one on water, then another underwater" lol

You should do a video on the unmade films of Pedro Almodovar. He almost adapted several books into movies such as The Silence of the Lambs and The Human Stain by Philip Roth. Very interesting to think about what could’ve been

David Lynch unmade movies next?

Here's a great idea for a future video: *"The Lost JAWS Sequels"* Including • The original John D. Hancock Cut of *"JAWS 2",* as written by Howard Sackler & Dorothy Tristan. • *"National Lampoon's* *JAWS 3, PEOPLE 0",* by John Hughes - this was to be his first big break in Hollywood - & Tod Carroll from a story by producer Matty Simmons (Richard D. Zanuck & David Brown who produced the first 2 *"JAWS"* films were to work as executive producers) and the film was to be directed by Joe Dante. • The original *"JAWS 3"* outline & script by Richard Matheson (based on a unmade story by Guerdon Trueblood) about a pair of Great White Sharks that got trapped on a saltwater lake and proceeded to cause havoc to a fishing community. • *"JAWS IV",* another comedic script (though not as satirical as *"JAWS 3, PEOPLE 0")* by Steve De Jarnett about a group of surfing punks (led by an Australian surfer) in Malibu having to deal with a Megalodon-sized Great White Shark (first introduced feasting on a normal Great White Shark that was to attack a female swimmer after an opening tease where you think it is set in medieval times, but is really a renaissance fair).

I kinda wish ET got a sequel. The ride at universal is kinda a sequel

Working on set can be very demanding. The look of the crew member in the background at 17:49 is telling. I love what I do and I have been there as well. We average 12+ hrs. So this maybe the 15+ moment. Meaning, just because we maybe wrapped for filming doesn't me we are wrapped in our departments. I work in camera and it could take several hrs to wrap. However, at the end of the day it's still so much fun

5:25 I always wanted to do a Fan Edit where it cuts to flashbacks during that part of Jaws.

I couldn't help to start bawling when that poor woman finally found out how her son died.

could you imagine Steven Spielberg Directed and made live action movie Alice in wonderland and have Jim Carrey play mad hatter and Dakota Fanning play Alice and could you imagine Steven Spielberg directed and made live action movie inspector Gadget being played by Robin Williams

Night Skies was influenced by the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter

No joke, a ET horror sequel is actually interesting to me.

I was a kid in the early '50s. One of the first books I read was about two kids who discover a stranded alien, and help him build what he needs to get back to his planet in the Andromeda galaxy. That little guy sang a song that included "...from Andromeda galaxy", informing the kids that his planet wasn't even in our galaxy. The first time I saw "E.T.", I thought of that little book, and tried to locate a copy. It was NOwhere. I've never seen a trace of it since, even with the vast knowledge the internet brought. Coincidence? Um....