On this date in 1982, the movie ET was released. Ten things you might not know:
Drew Barrymore got the part of Gertie because, at her audition, she spun a tale that she was in a punk band called the Purple People Eaters. Steven Spielberg was so impressed with her imagination that he hired her on the spot. Henry Thomas got cast as Elliott because he was able to cry to order by thinking about the day his dog died. Spielberg’s only direction to Thomas at the audition was to do whatever it takes to stop the government agent from taking the alien away.
The film is shot from a child’s perspective, which is why most shots are at child’s eye level, and no adult faces are shown until the last half of the film.
Harrison Ford had a cameo role as the school principal, but his scenes didn’t make the cut.
This film may well have started the product placement trend after sales of Reese’s Pieces, the sweet treats used to lure ET to the house, skyrocketed as a result of the film. Mars Corporation must have been gutted, as Spielberg originally wanted to use their sweets, M and Ms, for that scene. They refused.
ET’s look was created by an Italian artist called Carlo Rambaldi, who had also created King Kong and Alien. He took inspiration from a 1952 painting called Women of Delta, and ET's face was modelled on poet Carl Sandburg, Albert Einstein, and a pug dog. On screen, ET was sometimes a puppet, sometimes a small actor in a suit. Caprice Rothe, a mime artist, donned gloves that matched the texture of ET’s skin for the close ups of ET’s hands. In the scene where ET falls over, the actor inside was Matthew DeMeritt, an 11 year old actor who’d been born without legs. DeMeritt had a specially designed E.T. suit that allowed him to walk on his hands.
ET’s voice was provided by Pat Walsh, a chain smoker whose two pack a day habit gave her the raspy voice the role demanded. She was hired after being overheard speaking in a camera shop by the sound designer.
In most films, the musical score is edited to match the film. This proved a challenge in this case, so Spielberg told John Williams to forget the film and direct the Music as if the orchestra were playing a concert. Spielberg then edited the film to match the music. It worked. John Williams won the 1982 Academy Award for Best Original Score.
The doctors and nurses shown treating ET in the film are real doctors and nurses, told to treat ET as they would any other patient, so their dialogue was genuine.
While not revealed in the film, Spielberg has stated that ET is actually a plant like creature who is neither male or female. A novel of the film states ET is over ten million years old.
There was almost a sequel. Spielberg and screenwriter Melissa Mathison wrote the story during ET’s initial run. It would have been called E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears, and set the summer after the events of the original. In it, Elliott and his friends are abducted by a mutated race of E.T.s led by an evil entity named Korel and ET returns to rescue them. This story reveals ET’s name: Zrek. However, Spielberg ultimately decided that a sequel would merely ruin the original, and so abandoned the idea.
New!!!
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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