E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears (Sequel that never was)

E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears (Check out the treatment of the story)

While listening to the Hollywood Saloon podcast, they talked about the movies “that never happened”, and E.T. II came up as a project that was talked about and planned in the very early stages by Spielberg.

The concept behind this darker space sequel to the brighter first movie actually originated from an earlier planned sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was called Night Skies. It had some meaner aliens showing up on Earth after the friendly aliens left. Portions of that dropped story found its way into the ET-II treatment.

After ET became a huge hit, the studio and Spielberg thought about doing a sequel to ET. The treatment from the link above was the basic outline of that story. The story would have been direct sequel to the first movie, being most of the characters would have returned, but the story structure, style and tone were going to be darker. And, the kicker is ET wouldn't have shown up until the third act. That would have been a major issue with the story in its current form. People would have wanted to see ET and Elliot reunite earlier. The focus would be on the evil aliens instead. That would have turned some people off. I'm sure if they there were script rewrites, those changes would haven taken place.

Spielberg changed his mind and stopped the whole ET-II project. With some rewrites, I personally think the movie would have worked on a creepy level. I remember all those creepy moments in Close Encounters that Spielberg conveyed, and he could have carried them over to this project. (Remember the railroad tracks scene or the child being kidnapped?)

However, this follow could have cheapened the last few scenes from the first movie, by having ET show up only to leave again. 

Story points…

-Same Opening: This proposed sequel was going to open up exactly in the same way as the original film.  A ship arrives on Earth in a forest and we see an outline of familiar shape of those ET aliens.  This time though the aliens would be slightly different and sinister. 

-Elliott still pines for his friend ET.  While life is still moving along normally, there are a few changes.  Elliott’s mother is now in a relationship with the “Keys” guy.  That is just a little awkward I think. 

-This time around, the new aliens are bad guys and they are carnivorous.  The movie would have probably shown animals in the forest dropping to the ground being knocked out by a mental power.  Oh, and they are white versions of the ET aliens.  They came looking for ET, which the story reveals to be named “Zrek”.  I’m not making this up. 

-The evil aliens have a type of intergalactic zoo of creature in their ship. 

-The ET Comm-device starts to react.

-The evil aliens are lurking around the area, hiding in the shadows.  Reports of cattle being murdered would be in the news.  I actually think Spielberg would have handled this portion of the movie very well.  I could see people talking at night and having these shadow-like figures in the background or people “almost” seeing them from their windows. 

-Elliot and company goes to a clearing, hoping to see the arrival of ET, but the evil aliens are there instead.  The aliens surround the group.  The aliens show their sharp teeth and threaten to kill Elliot.  They capture the group of kids.  This could have been a creepy scene. 

-We would also see scenes of the kids being questioned and examined.  Little kids in danger would have freaked out the younger moviegoers. 

-ET returns to rescue Elliot and his friends.  Note: This happens in the third act of the movie, basically meaning that ET only shows up at the end of the movie.  ET reprograms the evil ship to leave Earth and that’s how they defeat the evil aliens.  That is pretty lame.