Steven Spielberg is one of the most legendary directors, but he didn’t always have that clout. In a recent interview, he opened up about the hard-fought victory he earned by making sure no sequel to E.T. ever came to fruition.
What did Steven Spielberg say about an E.T. sequel?
During a recent appearance at the TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY event this week (via THR), Spielberg spoke with E.T. star Drew Barrymore about how he had to make sure that no sequel would be made without him involved in any way.
“That was a real hard-fought victory because I didn’t have any rights. Before E.T., I had some rights, but I didn’t have a lot of rights,” Spielberg said. “I kind of didn’t have what we call ‘the freeze,’ where you can stop the studio from making a sequel because you control the freeze on sequels, remakes and other ancillary uses of the IP. I didn’t have that. I got it after E.T. because of its success.”
Spielberg also briefly touched on the idea of an E.T. sequel, and why he never ended up doing one, even though it’s likely the opportunity did arise.
“I just did not want to make a sequel. I flirted with it for a little bit — just a little bit to see if I [could] think of a story — and the only thing I could think about was a book that was written by somebody that wrote the book for it called The Green Planet, which was all going to take place at E.T.’s home,” said Spielberg. “We were all going to be able to go to E.T.’s home and see how E.T. lived. But it was better as a novel than I think it would have been as a film.”
As far as sequels go, Spielberg said he has “no intention ever of seeing E.T. anywhere outside of this proscenium.”
Originally released in 1982, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was a massive success. The sci-fi film earned more than $790 million at the box office throughout its lifetime, and upon release, was the highest-grossing film of all time, before Spielberg broke the record with his Jurassic Park movie in 1993. E.T. received nine Academy Awards nominations, winning four (Best Original Score, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing).
(Source: The Hollywood Reporter)
