Steven Spielberg fought against the E.T. sequel that became a theme park ride
Spielberg says preventing the sequel was a “hard-fought victory.” However, he neglects to remember that the idea became a theme park ride.
Photo by Stefanie Keenan (Getty Images for TCM)
There is only one canonized sequel to E.T.: Universal Studios’ E.T. Adventure. Based on the sequel to the novelization, E.T.: The Book Of The Green Planet by William Kotzwinkle, Adventure is a dark ride that doesn’t just allow E.T. to phone home. It takes him and those lucky enough to visit Universal Studios Florida there. Parkgoers bike through the cosmos, survive the cold recesses of space, and watch E.T. bring flowers back to life on his home planet, the Green Planet. The ride cost Universal $40 million and ends with E.T. saying each rider’s name, making the price tag worth it. In other words, it’s the perfect sequel, and thanks to Steven Spielberg, it’ll be the only one, whether he acknowledges its continued existence or not.
Over the weekend, Spielberg was interviewed by Gertie herself, Drew Barrymore, as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival, and the pair discussed why a sequel was never made. In short, that’s how Spielberg wanted it. The director says it was a “real hard-fought victory” to keep E.2. off screens because he “didn’t have any rights.” Spielberg explains he didn’t have “the freeze,” which allows a director to “stop the studio from making a sequel because you control the freeze on sequels, remakes and other ancillary uses of the IP.” Hence, all those Jaws sequels. Spielberg said he “just did not want to make a sequel.” However, he “flirted with it for a little bit.” The only thing that stuck out to him was Kotzwinkle’s sequel to his novelization. “The only thing I could think about was a book written by somebody that wrote the [novelization’s sequel] called The Green Planet, which was all going to take place at E.T.’s home,” he said. “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.”
With all due respect, Mr. Spielberg, it was best as a theme park ride. Despite Spielberg forgetting his old friend Kotzwinkle, Spielberg also neglects to mention that that’s the plot of Adventure. We must assume he didn’t make the movie because Francis Ford Coppola had not yet perfected characters on screen interacting with audience members. It would’ve been cool if E.T. had said goodbye to every viewer who had watched the movie.
Green Planet wasn’t the only sequel Spielberg froze out. One such proposed sequel centered around Elliott and company having yet another close encounter. Unfortunately, the red-eyed, fanged albino carnivores on this spaceship aren’t looking for Reese’s Pieces. Instead, they’re at war with E.T.’s people and have come to Earth to mutilate cows and torture E.T.’s friends for information on the missing alien. Sounds fun!