E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[sophie]

When E. T. is undergoing medical treatment, an off-camera voice says, "The boy's coming back. We're losing E.T." The person delivering this line is Melissa Mathison, who wrote the screenplay for the film.

[francisco]

The scene where Elliott kisses the pretty girl at school during the frog dissection took three or four takes to get right because Henry Thomas was extremely nervous.

[albert]

Steven Spielberg asked Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones to contribute a song for the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Story Book Album. Spielberg was so pleased with their song "Someone in the Dark" that he asked them to make the entire album, which, in spite of the size of the task, they agreed to do. This boxed set included an LP, a book to read along with it and a poster of E.T. and Jackson. Epic Records allowed Jackson to record the album for MCA Records on the conditions that it not be released until after Christmas of 1982 so as to not compete with 'Thriller' and that "Someone in the Dark" not be released as a single. Both of the conditions were breached by MCA Records; they released the storybook in November 1982 and gave promo copies of "Someone In the Dark" to radio stations. MCA Records were forced to withdraw the album and were prohibited from releasing "Someone In the Dark" as a single after court action was taken by Epic against them in a $2 million lawsuit, which MCA settled by paying Epic chief Walter Yetnikoff $500,000. Jones claims neither he nor Jackson received a dime for making the record, in spite of the large cash settlement involved and its considerable success: The audio book earned Jackson a Grammy Award in 1984 for Best Recording for Children. Upon collecting the award, and taking home a record eight Grammys from an unprecedented twelve nominations, the singer stated that of all the awards had gotten that night, he was "most proud of this one".