“E.T phone home”

There's a rumour that Steven Spielberg wanted to use M&M’s to lure ET out of hiding, instead of Reece’s pieces, but he couldn’t obtain the rights to the candy. If this is true and considering the kind of success the film would eventually have, the M&M people probably made a huge mistake. The kind of mistake that does melt in your hands, and then laughs at you.

When you’re an actor, you have to sometimes go to a place that you would rather not go, just to bring some real emotion to a particular scene. When Henry Thomas was auditioning for the role of Elliot, Spielberg wanted him to cry. So Henry thought of the day that his dog died and started to cry uncontrollably. Thus moving Mr. Spielberg so much, that he hired Henry on the spot.

Did you know that Harrison Ford was originally in the film? He played the role of the school principal, but Spielberg felt that his presence would be too distracting so he cut the scene. Oh, how times have changed when a brief appearance by Mr. Ford now in a movie would be the only way to sell the film. Incidentally, it was Harrison Ford’s then wife, Melissa Matheson, who wrote the screenplay for E.T.


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