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'E.T.' Was Initially A Horror Film And Here Are The Original Designs To Prove It

Posted May 29, 2014 11:00 pm

Kirsten Acuna

Steven Spielberg's classic "E.T." is heralded as one of the director's best works today. It's also one of the highest-grossing.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span>

<p class="p1">However, you may not realize the film about a friendly extraterrestrial was originally envisioned as a horror movie that <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">was supposed to be a sequel to Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." </span>

<p class="p1">The movie, then referred to as "Night Skies," <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">was supposed to feature aliens "who could kill each other" using the tips of their fingers, according to Time. There was also a good alien in the group, too, named Buddy who more or less reflected E.T. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span>

<p class="p1">Spielberg ultimately deemed the idea too dark and we ended up with the film we know today. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span>

<p class="p1">Since the idea for "Night Skies" was tossed around, it shouldn't come as a surprise that there were some early ideas of how the aliens should look.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span>

<p class="p1">Special effects artist Rick Baker recently shared some of his original concept art and designs for the aliens from "E.T." and "Night Skies" on Twitter, and boy are they a lot different from the alien we grew up with.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span>

<p class="p1">First, here's the cuddly E.T. we know:<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/50ca5ecbeab8ea2d19000000-800-533/e.t.-1.jpg" border="0" alt="E.T." style="line-height: 1.5em;" />

<p class="p1">Below are some of the images Baker shared of a much different, angrier alien.

<p class="p1">This alien may look kind of unrecognizable now ...

As requested The Night Skies alien. Not finished, no eyes. Cover the top of his head and tell me who he looks like. pic.twitter.com/r3PxK1T98A

- Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 22, 2014</blockquote>

... but take off the top of the head and there's a familiar face underneath.

He does look like Edward G and the others.But painting out the top of the head, adding eyes,and small tweaks.ET"S dad pic.twitter.com/XOdbSNDmAd

- Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 23, 2014</blockquote>

Here's the design of the full alien which had a preying mantis-like arm.

Unhappy days,film shut down. I wanted to change the body of the ET,the mantis like arm placement just didn't work imo pic.twitter.com/mNMEAP9yem

- Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 26, 2014</blockquote>

Happy days sculpting the prototype arms for the Night Skies alien back in 1980 pic.twitter.com/x2z2ftL1ll

- Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 24, 2014</blockquote>

<p class="p1">An entire clan of extraterrestrials!<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5388a608ecad04303e5e7a25-1023-583/e.t.-concept-art.jpg" border="0" alt="e.t. concept art" style="line-height: 1.5em;" />

<p class="p1">This one's a bit cuter.

Here was a quick clay sketch that I did in 1980 for one of the nicer younger NIGHT Skies aliens pic.twitter.com/NKHVXrGNLu

- Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 23, 2014</blockquote>

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