[Movies] Kathleen Kennedy And Henry Thomas Talk About The 30th Anniversary Of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Posted by Joseph Lee on 10.09.2012
It's on Blu-ray today...
Coming Soon spoke with producer Kathleen Kennedy and actor Henry Thomas about E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, which celebrates its 30th anniversary with a blu-ray release today. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg. Here are highlights:
Kennedy on the film's budget: "The movie only cost $10 million which, even then, was relatively small. I would say that's the only reason he asked me to produce it. It was a surprise to all of us. [Steven] thought he was doing something relatively personal and small and intimate."
Kennedy on how an alien invasion film called Watch the Skies turned into E.T.: "It was about this alien invasion, essentially. It was still a small movie and not an alien invasion movie the way we think of them today… The very last page of the script is a little alien left alone, looking at the sky and watching his spaceship leave. Steven said, 'I don't want to make this movie. That's the movie I want to make.' That was really the genesis of 'E.T.'"
Thomas on acting with the animatronic alien: "It was an easy world for me to fall into and ignore the man behind the curtain, so to speak... I was aware of the reality of the wire and the twelve guys on the other side of the studio operating it. But all on all of the sets and all the locations, there was an air of magic about it where you could easily put yourself in a situation where the cameras were gone. Part of that was being 10 years old. For Drew Barrymore who was seven when we were working together, he was very real. She worried about him when we went to lunch."
