Don’t worry, once he’s dead and can’t stop it Hollywood will thoroughly sh*t over this IP as well with prequels, sequels and spinoffs. They’re very patient if there’s potential for a cash grab.
Then again, Spielberg isn’t so pure – he CGI’d the guns with walkie-talkies in the re-release didn’t he? Can’t depict our loving government agents as anything but benevolent, right?
Wasn’t it Terry Pr⍺tchett who specifically put in his will that all of his unfinished works (on hard drives) were to be crushed with a steamroller?
Wasn’t it Terry Pr⍺tchett who specifically put in his will that all of his unfinished works (on hard drives) were to be crushed with a steamroller?
People were so upset about that and I understand why, but creators are so dehumanized and treated as entertainment machines, I think being able to release or withhold your work on your own terms is so important.
I still feel really weird knowing that Kafka’s writings were released against his wishes after he died. I can’t even say it wasn’t a net positive, and I know he’s long dead so it doesn’t really affect him, but it feels like people don’t want artists or writers to be able to keep anything to themselves. We’re not only entitled to everything they’ve already made, but everything they could potentially make. How many times have you heard people say “we were robbed” because a standalone work didn’t get a sequel, or a TV show didn’t get a dozen redundant seasons? Like if we like someone’s work, we’re owed more of it.
Spielberg later regretted making those changes to ET saying,
“That was a mistake,” Spielberg told a master class at the Time 100 Summit in New York City.
"I never should have done that.
"E.T. is a product of its era. No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through.
Also, in another example, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale have the rights to Back to the Future. Universal need there approval for any sequels/remakes which they will strongly refuse. They’ve also left the legal rights to their estates. So even once they’ve passed on, the chance of anymore films are basically zero.
There was a sequel though!
ET, the book of the green planet.
It was a bit weird, shifting into ET’s perspective as the main character, but it is a delightful read despite that.
Edit: he mentions it in the article, and I think his opinion that it was a better book than it could ever be as a movie is dead on.
ET, ET2, ET3, ETC
In modern times they for sure would have called them ETwo and EThree - Part 1 and EThree - Part 2: Endgame.
In the 90s it would have been E2T and a huge ship of ETs would have blown up New York with a big laser because they wanted revenge for kidnapping the OG ET.
