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Stranded on Earth: How Night Skies Became E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Hardcover

Evry, Max

 
9781948221450: Stranded on Earth: How Night Skies Became E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1948221454 ISBN 13: 9781948221450
Verlag: 1984 Publishing, 2026

Inhaltsangabe

As featured in Entertainment Weekly, Nerdist, IGN, Gizmodo, MovieMaker and more!

Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is one of the most beloved films ever made—but its origins are far more surprising than most audiences realize.

Following his acclaimed bestseller A Masterpiece in Disarray: David Lynch's Dune, author and film journalist Max Evry returns with Stranded on Earth: How Night Skies Became E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the in-depth chronicle of the extraordinary creative journey that transformed an abandoned science-fiction horror film into a cultural phenomenon.

Tracing Spielberg's lifelong fascination with extraterrestrials—from his teenage feature Firelight through the groundbreaking success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind—Evry uncovers the remarkable story behind Night Skies, a dark alien invasion project inspired by alleged UFO encounters. As the ambitious production unraveled amid creative disagreements and shifting studio priorities, Spielberg found the emotional story that would become E.T.—a film that forever changed popular cinema.

Drawing on new interviews with Spielberg collaborators, actors, artists, effects technicians, and other key insiders, Stranded on Earth reveals the untold stories behind the making, unmaking, and rebirth of one of Hollywood's most celebrated productions. Along the way, it also explores how the DNA of Night Skies survived in films including Poltergeist and Gremlins, influencing an entire generation of science fiction and horror cinema.

Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 rare images and illustrations, Stranded on Earth is an engrossing work of film history and an essential companion for movie lovers, Spielberg fans, E.T. devotees, and anyone fascinated by the creative process behind one of Hollywood's most enduring cinematic achievements.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

MAX EVRY is the author of A Masterpiece in Disarray: David Lynch’s Dune (2023), praised by Empire, SFX, The Hollywood Reporter, The A.V. Club, and The Wall Street Journal, among others.

As a film journalist, he has worked as a writer, interviewer, graphic designer, video creator, and managing editor for outlets including Wired, MTV, IGN, Box Office Pro, and Den of Geek. He has also contributed audio commentaries and featurettes for home video companies including Arrow, Kino Lorber, and Vinegar Syndrome, covering classic and contemporary films such as Foul Play, Blackhat, and the Best Picture Oscar winner Marty.

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PROLOGUE

In 1978 Columbia Pictures asked filmmaker Steven Spielberg to develop a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, at the time Columbia’s highest-grossing movie ever. Reluctant to rehash his film, Spielberg recalled a documented alien incident from his research known as the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter. The filmmaker decided a fictionalized version of this story—wherein a family’s rural farmstead is terrorized by malevolent alien visitors—would make for a compelling follow-up to Close Encounters.

Spielberg assembled a dream team to make Night Skies, all in their career infancy: director Ron Cobb, producer Kathleen Kennedy, screenwriter John Sayles, and creature effects wizard Rick Baker. After an intense period of development and on the verge of production, Spielberg made a bold choice: He scrapped the film. Not entirely, though…

Piggybacking off Sayles’ written ending—where the one sympathetic alien who made an emotional connection with a young boy is stranded on earth by his brethren—the filmmaker made that the starting point for a new script. Written by Melissa Mathison, this revised project was initially known as A Boy's Life, then E.T. and Me, and finally E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. While initially thought to be a small Disney-esque kids movie, it captured the hearts and minds of the world as it went on to become the most successful movie of all time.

This will be the story of that journey…

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Verlag
1984 Publishing
Erscheinungsdatum
2026
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1948221454
ISBN 13 
9781948221450
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
422
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Verantwortliche Person
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