With the release of a Thanksgiving Day Parade ad that reunited E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with Elliott, the internet’s attention has turned to a treatment for an actual sequel, planned shortly after the success of the original, which would have seen E.T. return to help his loved ones rid the world of an evil, mutant strain of aliens. In the treatment, which is available to read online, who have been waging war with E.T.’s people for years, and now want to bring their special brand of trouble to Earth. The project would have been written by E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial screenwriter Melissa Mathison, with input from filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
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Ultimately Spielberg abandoned the project, saying in a recent interview with the American Film Institute that “Sequels can be very dangerous because they compromise your truth as an artist. I think a sequel to E.T. would do nothing but rob the original of its virginity. People only remember the latest episode, while the pilot tarnishes.”
If you read the pitch, you can scrub your brain by looking back on today’s promo, which clocks in at nearly five minutes and follows a Elliot, the little boy who audiences fell in love with decades ago, who returns as an adult. After all of these years, Elliot has grown into a man with a wife and two children. He has an older son and young daughter to keep track of, but things get haywire when a friend from the past shows up.
The video sees E.T. return home after going years without seeing Elliot. The boy’s children find the alien hiding behind a snowman before their dad realizes what is going on. The emotional reunion will have fans of the original film feeling emotional, and it only gets worse from there.
As the short continues, fans watch as Elliot and his family welcome E.T. into the fold. The alien gets to watch a movie and even play a VR game before his time to leave comes around. This time, it is Elliot’s son who gets on a flying bicycle to usher E.T. to his ship, and the nostalgic scene will take the breath from audiences. If Elliot’s final moment with E..T. doesn’t make you cry then this getaway scene will do the trick.
Mathison, who passed away in 2015, scored a best screenplay Oscar nomination for the Steven Spielberg-directed classic in 1983 and worked on a sequel with Spielberg shortly after the film’s release. Luckily for all involved, the sequel never materialized.
“Melissa had a heart that shined with generosity and love and burned as bright as the heart she gave E.T.,” Spielberg said in a statement at the time.
