By Todd Garbarini
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial:
From Concept to Classic is a 30th anniversary paperback reprint of the
book that was originally published in hardcover for the film’s 20th
anniversary in 2002 that accompanied the special edition DVD Ultimate Gift Set of
Steven Spielberg’s classic story of a young boy, the product of a divorced
home, who befriends an extra-terrestrial who is mistakenly left behind by his spaceship
following a hasty exit from earth. If
you own the 2002 edition, the new book is identical except for the fact that it
is paperback and its dimensions measure 9†x 0.4†x 10.8â€, a little larger than
its predecessor. The introduction to the
new printing by Steven Spielberg is also updated and does not retain his
introduction to the 2002 edition.
The
book is essentially separated into three sections. Section one covers the origins and the
overall development of the film from concept (as a story called Night Skies which was originally very
malevolent in tone) to the first draft which was penned by Melissa Mathison,
whose work on Carroll Ballard’s 1979 film The
Black Stallion impressed Mr. Spielberg so much that he hand-picked her to
write the script. Mr. Spielberg’s idea
for E.T., which originated while on
location in the summer of 1980 during the shooting of Raiders of the Lost Ark, came from his thoughts about the alien at
the end of his own Close Encounters of
the Third Kind (1977) and what it would be like for him if he were to be
inadvertently stranded on earth. There
are also comments from producer Kathleen Kennedy (now the president of
Lucasfilm), E.T. designer and creator Carlo Rambaldi, actor Henry Thomas, actress
Drew Barrymore, actor Robert MacNaughton, actor Peter Coyote, actress Dee
Wallace-Stone, composer John Williams, cinematographer Allen Daviau, editor
Carol Littleton, sound designer Ben Burtt, visual effects supervisor Dennis
Muren, and production designer James D. Bissell.
Section
two contains the film’s complete screenplay, which was the first draft that
Mrs. Mathison wrote and was so good that the director decided to shoot it as-is
with very little, if any, changes. The
screenplay is complemented by illustrations by Ed Verraux and production notes the
give further insight into the original ideas that the crew had in mind but had
to be abandoned or altered due to time constraints or logistics. It also includes the sequence with the school
principal (played by Harrison Ford) that was cut from the film, in addition to
other shots/scenes that were cut.
Section
three concerns itself with the film’s post-production (the models of the
children on their bikes, E.T.’s spaceship) and its impact on the movie-going
public (the E.T. phenomenon and merchandising), and the 2002 restoration.
It
is interesting to note that E.T.,
which was originally entitled A Boy’s
Life, was conceived of as a small, personal film. Although the director was by this time a
household name due to the success of Jaws
and the aforementioned Close Encounters
and Raiders, no one could have
expected the film to do the sort of business that it ended up doing, easily
propelling it to the top spot as the year’s most financially successful
film. This book does an excellent job of
giving the reader great insight into not only the making of the film but into
the thoughts of those involved in its creation. What is most evident is that everyone on the set (cast and crew alike) treated
the creature of E.T. with dignity and respect as if he was a real, live
creature. Itself the brainchild of designer
and creator Carlo Rambaldi, who also created the aliens in Close Encounters,
the mechanical head effects of the alien in Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), and the entacled creature in Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession (1981) to name a few, E.T.
rarely looks like an animatronic puppet even in the behind-the-scenes shots. You would really swear that he was a real
creature. Mr. Rambaldi passed away in
August of this year at the age of 86, and E.T. stands as one of his greatest
(and certainly most emotional) achievements.
For
fans of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, this
book is a must-have.
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