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'It was supposed to be different': Spielberg admits ET origins

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I wonder which version of the movie would have helped inform others of the UFO phenomenon, the version we see now or the original?
 
I heard about this earlier this week, I have to say that when I was a boy I fell in love with E.T. If it was scary others and myself might have been hesitant to fall in love with these fortean things. I also heard years ago that GhostBusters was supposed to be scary when I was a teenager. That would have sucked. There is enough creepy alien and ghost stuff, I for one am glad they chose the more light hearted family friendly route.
 
Fascinating how movie projects change so much during the development process. But if ET was a scary story, would it have been so popular?
 
Gene Steinberg said:
Fascinating how movie projects change so much during the development process. But if ET was a scary story, would it have been so popular?
Click to expand...

Probably not. ET was from a more naive era of alien entertainment, before the likes of Independence Day etc. Although ET is a bit syrupy, it is a nice counterweight to the many"evil aliens" films.

But a film about the "Kentucky goblins" (as I remember it being called) would be very interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly–Hopkinsville_encounter
 
mike said:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10771262
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Some additional details and comments from Spielberg and Kennedy on that issue are available on the bonus section of Laser disc release of ET.

I wrote about it two years ago on UFO Updates, and it is archived here:
http://tinyurl.com/d2pbu5q

Clip in question is named as:
"Clip 07 - Connection Between Close Encounters And E.T."
Of course, download links for all clips, are not active any more.

I later found out that most of my extracted clips (together with my other ones from other reports as Barry Goldwater and Clinton's Belfast quote) from that report were uploaded on youtube by the user "paulrobdi55" (he also left the same titles as they were in my report).
This is his channel so you can check some of those:


http://www.youtube.com/user/paulrobdi55#p/u

Unfortunately, he didn't upload that clip number 07, but I have now reactivated that link. You can download it now here:

http://tinyurl.com/d26ddej

I also wrote part 2 archived here:


http://tinyurl.com/ct6o8lc

and another tie-in report here:


http://tinyurl.com/ct6o8lc

Best Wishes,
 
It's my strong opinion that there are too many frightening, negative alien movies. Off-hand the more negative depictions of aliens in movies is overwhelming to the positive ones. Just to name a few, you have ET (of course), The Abyss, Cocoon, and a few others from that era. Conspiracy theorists state that the overwhelming production of negative alien movies is a smear-campaign by a government controlled Hollywood. I don't necessarily agree (at frakin' all). If you look at the average cash-flow intake from negative alien movies they show to be more profitable than the touchy-feely alien movies. Alien invasion movies are exciting and couple the action of a disaster movie such as Armageddon or 2012. Still, with all the negativity surrounding aliens and infused in UFO movies and TV shows, IF aliens did end up on our doorstep they would most likely be met with a reaction of panic by the global population, at least those of us in the supposedly-more sophisticated Western world.
 
I feel that recently the movie super 8 felt like an 80s throw back, it was like ET meets Goonies. It was fun and exciting and something my family really loved. I agree we need more positive alien movies.
 
It was the Hopkinsville encounter that supposedly inspired the movies. Ironically I such a huge phobia of huaanoid aliens that I cannot even watch ET without being terrified.
 
ET was so popular because sickly-sweet themes were in vogue in 1982. I didnt see ET again for nearly 20 years after I saw it in the movies, and I couldn't beleive just how bad the acting and the storyline was, and now I'm just astounded at how successful it was.
A scary movie at that time would have flopped though.
 
I cut my teeth on the masters of the Sci Fi's "golden age"--Heinlein, Bradbury, Sturgeon, P.K. Dick et al. And so many talented writers have come and gone even since. It's been sad to watch the cheapening of the genre to the level of blood gooey creep opera. Spielburg, Kubrick and a few others have been relative bright spots. (I agree that ET was a bit syrupy) But the field has yet to achieve a fraction of its artistic potential. Of course, art is no match for big bucks and market demand for junk!
 
You know what? There is one thing about science fiction that strikes me over and over as I'm reading Robert Sheckley / Harry Harrison novels - how come non of them haven't been used to create a great movie?! As you read them it almost immediately occurs to you that it's really easy to visualize their plot and to write a script based on it. Seriously.
 
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