Steven Spielberg “flirted” with the idea of making an ‘E.T.’ sequel set in space

nme.com:

Steven Spielberg has revealed that he considered the idea of making an E.T. sequel set in space – and the studio wanted him to do so too.Reuniting with Drew Barrymore, who had a role in the classic 1982 movie as a child, at the TCM Classic Film Festival: New York Pop-Up x 92NY, he explained that he ultimately realized a sequel wouldn’t have been right.The director explained about his fight to prevent a sequel: “That was a real hard-fought victory because I didn’t have any rights.

Before E.T., I had some rights, but I didn’t have a lot of rights. I kind of didn’t have what we call ‘the freeze,’ where you can stop the studio from making a sequel because you control the freeze on sequels, remakes and other ancillary uses of the IP.

I didn’t have that. I got it after E.T. because of its success.”He continued: “I just did not want to make a sequel,” he continued. “I flirted with it for a little bit – just a little bit to see if I [could] think of a story – and the only thing I could think about was a book that was written by [‘E.T.’ author William Kotzwinkle] called ‘The Green Planet’, which was all going to take place at E.T.’s home.

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.”Kotzwinkle released ‘The Book Of The Green Planet’ in 1985, after he wrote the novelisation of the movie.