MOVIE TRIVIA … E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL

MOVIE TRIVIA …

E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL 2

1. Debra Winger not only provided the temp voice for E.T. but also played one of the ghouls in the Halloween sequence. She is wearing a monster mask and a lab coat and carries a poodle.

2. Steven Spielberg's original concept was for a much darker movie in which a family was terrorized in their house by aliens. When Spielberg decided to go with a more benevolent alien, the family-in-jeopardy concept was recycled as Poltergeist (1982).

3. At the 20th anniversary re-release premier, John Williams conducted a live orchestra as the film played, much like an orchestra would do for a stage musical.

4. Was the highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide until Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993) was released.

5. A wet T-shirt crammed with jello to simulate the noise of E.T.'s waddling walk.

6. Steven Spielberg worked simultaneously on both this film and Poltergeist (1982) in 1982 (which was directed by Tobe Hooper but produced by Spielberg), and both were made to complement each other. "E.T." represented suburban dreams, and "Poltergeist" represented suburban nightmares.

7. The working title for the film was "A Boy's Life". It was changed during production.

8. The end of the film was one of the most significant musical experiences for composer John Williams . After several attempts were made to match the score to the film, Steven Spielberg took the film off the screen and encouraged Williams to conduct the orchestra the way he would at a concert. He did, and Spielberg slightly re-edited the film to match the music, which is unusual since normally the music would be edited to match the film. The result was Williams winning the 1982 Academy Award for Best Original Score.

9. The young actors (Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore and Robert MacNaughton) found the ET puppet's eyes too far apart to comfortably look ET in the eye when they had to act with it. The actors solved the problem themselves by selecting a single eye to look at for every scene.

10. E.T. provided the inspiration for Neil Diamond's song "Heartlight" but no mention is ever made of the movie in the lyrics.

11. The filmmakers had requested that M&M's be used to lure E.T., instead of Reese's Pieces. The Mars company denied their request and so Reese's Pieces were used. Reese's Pieces sales skyrocketed. More and more companies then began requesting that their products be used in movies. Thus, product placement was born.

12. Harrison Ford was initially intended to have a cameo role in the film as Elliot's school headmaster, but the scene was cut.

13. Steven Spielberg shot the film in chronological order to invoke a real response from the actors (mainly the children) when E.T. departed at the end. All emotional responses from that last scene are real.