Beaming up E.T.

If you watch Steven Spielberg's E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial, expecting spectacular special effects, you will be disappointed.

Even then, the new edition of the film classic [it became the most successful film in the US in 1982, with a $300-million gross], is a charming love story that transcends boundaries. Compared to several big flicks today, E.T. has fewer special effects. Yet it is rich with emotion and charm.

Playing on over 3,000 screens across North America and having psyched $15 million, it was the third highest grossing film last weekend.

When E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial became a worldwide phenomenon and was seen by over 100 million people in America in 1982, Steven Spielberg was asked by viewers and studio executives whether he would work on a sequel.

He firmly said, "No."

But he thought it would be wonderful to reissue the film years later using new technology.

It would be a treat to people who had adored E.T., the tale of friendship between an alien and children. And it would be a new experience to another generation of film fans.

A few months after the new version is released, E.T. will be available on DVD, with the original version, the anniversary version, and other attractions. E.T. was released on home video in 1988. About 18 million units have been sold, generating at least $500 million in revenue in North America. DVD sales are expected to be huge too.

The restored versions of several hit films have done excellent business in the last decade.

George Lucas' Star Wars, for instance, grossed about $220 million worldwide in 1997. And it raked in over $100 million in profits in video sales following the re-release.

Grease, directed by Randal Kleiser, danced to the tune of $40 million. And William Friedkin's The Exorcist psyched about $100 million in 2000.

But not all restored versions end up with a bounty. David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, for instance, grossed about $10 million a few years ago. Douglas Shearer's The Wizard of Oz, released in 1998 to mark its 50th anniversary, collected about $5 million. And Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now Redux took about $8 million last year.

Universal Pictures has reportedly spent about $50 million for the new prints and advertisements. The restoration itself cost about $10 million.

It is giving E.T. the kind of high profile treatment reserved for $100 million-plus new films. E.T. trailers began showing in thousands of theatres months ago. Many Universal films such as A Beautiful Mind, which won four Academy Awards, carried the trailers too.

The E.T. tie-ins are also formidable.

Over a dozen companies including Dairy Queen, Kraft/Nabisco - not to overlook the Special Olympics - entered co-branding agreements with Universal and Spielberg's Amblin over a year ago.

E.T. was perhaps the first film to fully appreciate the big business of Hollywood licensing and tie-ins. With the new version, Universal and Spielberg stand to make millions from the tie-ins. According to Hollywood buzz, they have already recouped the $60 million restoration and marketing costs because of the tie-ins.

Some people wonder if a new generation will be able to appreciate in significant numbers a simple story of an unusual encounter. The film has no pulse-raising action scenes or jaw-dropping special effects as in Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings.

"There is no glitzy animated gimmicks as in Shrek or Toy Story," wrote Jonathan Bing in the influential trade publication, Variety. He wondered if children who help turning films into huge hits would be drawn to E.T. in big numbers.

"A parable of alienation and friendship that struck a deep chord with Reagan's America, E.T. remains a marvel of pure storytelling." But Bing felt the film is a 'bit creaky and sentimental by today's standards'.

But he also thought, as many other industry observers have, the film's 'old fashioned sentiment and warmth' could be a balm to post September 11 America.

"E.T. has a resonance that is as real today as it was 20 years ago," Universals marketing president Peter Adee told reporters. Like other great stories, E.T. too would appeal to a new generation, he asserted.

Many industry observers expect the film to gross at least $100 million in North America and make a far bigger fortune in DVD.

The 20th anniversary edition of the film, Spielberg says, fixes the technical flaws he knew that always existed in the film. It also includes never-before-seen footage, state-of-the-art enhancements and a digitally remixed soundtrack, all supervised by Steven Spielberg in between directing two big budget films - A I and Minority Report

But the new edition, Spielberg insisted, would have 'subtle adjustments'.

Kathleen Kennedy, one of the executive producers of E.T. recalls some of the problems Spielberg had run into 20 years ago and how he thought they would be fixed. She remembers the day E.T.'s lip got caught and they could not fix it for the shot.

Bill George, the visual effects supervisor for the special edition, discusses in the press kit for the new edition, how he worked with Spielberg on the anniversary edition.

"Our approach was that E.T. was like a classic piece of architecture that had fallen into disrepair," he explains, "and we needed to redo the floors and repaint the walls to make it as close to the original classic vision as we could."

The difference between the original and new version did not have to be drastic, Spielberg had insisted.

"Its kind of like the difference between sending grandma to a beauty parlor or sending her to the plastic surgeon."

Spielberg and his team wanted to send the grandma to the beauty parlor. "You don't want to change her… just make her more attractive," George notes.

Spielberg says he was very careful 'not to change the substance of the story'.

He turned to Industrial Light & Magic, one of the foremost special effects outfits in the world, to help him. He instructed George that all the visual effects enhancements matched the original film. ILM then created 'remarkably subtle' devises, notes George, to widen the range of E.T.'s facial expressions or re-do a matte background to allow for moving clouds or the wind breeze through forest trees.

"It was just like taking a very fine paintbrush and putting a little bit of rouge on a pallid face," says Spielberg.

A bathtub sequence deleted from the first version because technically it did not look so good is among some of scenes the audiences will be seeing for the first time.

Spielberg notes with the inclusion of the bathtub scene, there is a little more bonding opportunity for E.T. and the young boy, Elliott.

"And there is also a moment that shows the audience that E.T. and Elliott experience each other's feelings," Spielberg notes. "When the phone rings and Elliot jumps, E.T. also jumps, not because the phone startled him, but because Elliott's heart skips a beat."

The new version also restored the moment, enhanced by new technology, when E.T. exposes and displays his very elongated neck, 'which is a nice revelation of the growing trust between the two new friends.'

A Halloween sequence that has been restored includes one of Drew Barrymore's best moments, Spielberg reveals.

What is the most important alteration Spielberg has made in the new edition?

He says he kept a promise he made in an interview in 1995 that if he will reissue the film he would remove the scene in which a gun was used to stop children on bicycles. He is not worried about the reaction of the die-hard fans.

"The climate for guns was not as inflammatory in 1982 as it is today," he says. "I was sensitive to the fact that I had put guns in E.T. It bothered me more after my son Max was born in 1985."

Kennedy is convinced the new scenes with the police using a walkie-talkie instead of guns are more realistic. It was highly unlikely that the police chasing kids on bicycles would have drawn a gun, she feels.

Elliott's mother forbade him to go out on Halloween looking like a 'terrorist'. In the restored version, the word has been replaced by hippie because to Spielberg the word connotes a non-violent person.

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