You know, there's always been talk
of sequels and things like that.
And it's really funny,
because it's Steven Spielberg's baby, you know,
and he's very particular about this film.
So I've always viewed any attempt at revamping the character
or showing it in a different context
is sort of a thing that's never gonna happen.
Then they said, "well,
"Steven signed off on the story, he loves it."
And I said, "What?"
(revealing music)
Looking at the storyboards and everything,
I could see exactly why Steven was really behind it
because the integrity of the story isn't lost
in this retelling or reshaping of it.
A little bit more smoke,
actually it's good right now, ready and action.
More than anything the whole story is just about family.
Young Elliot is a grown man.
And he now has a wife and kids.
And so the way that that sort of bookends
or the balance that that has to the original story,
I think is really beautiful in that way.
This commercial is really all about
connection and togetherness
and building unbreakable bonds with people.
Man, I think this makes a really nice holiday film
because the holidays are about friends and family
and distant relatives coming together.
Sometimes after long periods of being apart,
sometimes in spite of great distances.
I remember this guy, you've gotten a little older there.
(laughs)
I was talking to Henry Thomas
and I said it's amazing the way you can relate to this guy.
And he said, "I just think of him as real."
Such an iconic character,
you know, Steven never wanted to do a sequel.
This is a character that is beloved by everybody
for generations, so you can't screw it up.
We have a team of mechanics, painters, mold makers
that all have to recreate this character.
This radio is controlling his eyes and eyebrows.
It's amazing how much technology has changed,
filmmaking and this industry.
You can make him talk, ET home.
And one, two, three, scream.
I was saying to the puppeteers,
I wish we would have had this guy back then
because it would have made things so much easier but,
but at the time, in the early 80s,
it was all cutting edge and we were breaking new ground
and it was a totally new frontier.
You know, with a rod puppet,
you get a really fluid, connected performance.
Little subtleties of head movement, arm movement
that you can't get with internal robotics,
and that's an easier thing for CG to do
is to remove the rods.
Remove the puppeteers than to do a full CG character.
We took everything great about the puppet,
and then we use CG to just take it to the next level
and bring it to life.
Dilating pupils, adding breath, re-finessing textures.
The full CG way would actually be bringing it
into the 21st century.
We actually wanted to go more back
to what Steven Spielberg was doing in the original movie.
You'll go like this, paw!
And he's gonna copy you, yeah, exactly.
Ready and action.
Doing this in CG like would present huge challenges
in terms of working with our child actors.
That tactile presence of the puppet for our kids was great.
I don't think we would have ever gotten
the same performances out of them
if that was a full CG character.
There are certain limitations that a puppet gives you
and we're designing shots
in the same way they did in the original movie
because they were working with those same considerations,
really leaning more into backlighting on ET
you know, they backlite ET whenever possible,
very little bit of field light.
And in doing so it made him feel much more lifelike.
In the making of this film
we wanted to nod to the original but not totally remake it.
There were certain iconic scenes and images
and even props that we definitely wanted to pay homage to.
(children screaming)
We have put dozens and dozens of Easter eggs
throughout this film.
A photo of the original dog, Harvey, Gertie's cup,
the drawing that Elliot drew of ET in school,
the bike, the original bike,
all of these things are peppered throughout the film
so that every time you watch it,
you're likely to see something new
that you've never seen before.
When Gertie's watching TV,
and she's learning the alphabet,
it was B for basket on the TV.
So you got that in there.
Just little things like that that we've kind of thrown in.
The bobby pins actually make a connection
on the saw blade as it spins around with exposed parts
that weren't painted and that actually sends a signal
on the original one
which sends the message that ET sends out
to his home planet.
It's working.
It's hard when you have to try to match it
as best as possible but it's also pretty cool
to create something that, you know,
gives you nostalgia from your childhood.
There's a lot of nostalgia in it, you know,
there's a lot of nostalgia for us as viewers,
as well as for Elliot, of course.
I hope that when people watch this film,
it would kind of spark that reminiscing almost
where you just go back to that time
when you loved this film,
and kind of just relive that childhood moment.
I will be right here.
It's so neat how we're able to bring the story to life
and still honor and respect
the way that it was originally told.
I think in all of Spielberg's films,
he's not afraid to really go to a place that's sentimental,
that's emotional.
So I think really the image would be,
can we create an emotional story
in this abbreviated telling?
It has such a special place in people's hearts this film
and the story.
I think audiences are going to love it.
(dramatic orchestral music)
Hey come on.
(lights flickering)
(dogs barking)
(suspense music)
(children screaming)
Eliot?
Eliot
You came back
my son,
my family
A lot has changed since you were here.
It's called the internet.
(laughs)
go ahead do it, eat it.
I'm gonna hit start now, okay.
All right.
Wow.
♪ I'm dreaming of a white Christmas ♪
♪ With every Christmas card I write ♪
Holiday movies.
♪ And may all your Christmas' ♪
♪ be white ♪
(soft music)
Family.
(soft music)
(dramatic orchestral music)
(kids shouting excitedly)
I will be right here.
(orchestral music)
(space ship engine roars)
(fanfare music)