Steven Spielberg reveals his efforts to prevent a sequel to his iconic film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. He explains his lack of full control over the IP rights and his conscious decision to leave the story as a standalone masterpiece.
Steven Spielberg has revealed that he fought hard to prevent a sequel to his beloved 1982 film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Speaking at the TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY event, Spielberg explained that he didn't have full control over the film's intellectual property (IP) rights and therefore couldn't officially stop a sequel from being made. He stated, 'That was a real hard-fought victory because I didn’t have any rights.
I had some rights, but I didn’t have a lot of rights. 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.' Spielberg admitted to briefly considering a sequel idea, but ultimately decided against it. He shared, '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 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 '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...' Spielberg emphasized his ownership of the E.T. story, stating, 'It was my story. It wasn’t George Lucas’ story, wasn’t Peter Benchley’s story, it was my story. I had just done a number of very difficult productions, and I had not intended this to be a hard movie to make, but it was something that came to my heart. It was something that I thought up.' Star Drew Barrymore, who was six years old during the film's release, also chimed in, supporting Spielberg's decision. She said, 'I thought it was a smart choice. I very much understand it. Where do we go from here? They’re just going to compare it to the first and leave something that’s perfect alone in isolation open to scrutiny. It made so much sense.
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