Editing E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (section)

===Development===
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| image1            = Steven Spielberg by Gage Skidmore.jpg
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| footer            = Director [[Steven Spielberg]] (left) and co-producer [[Kathleen Kennedy (producer)|Kathleen Kennedy]], the latter of whom received her first producing credit with this film
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After his parents' divorce in 1960, Spielberg filled the void with an imaginary alien companion that he later recalled as "a friend who could be the brother [he] never had and a father that [he] didn't feel [he] had anymore".<ref name="McBride p72" /> In 1978, he announced that he would shoot a film entitled ''Growing Up'', which he would film in four weeks. However, the project was set aside due to delays on ''[[1941 (film)|1941]]'', but the concept of making a small autobiographical film about childhood would stay with him.<ref name="brode" /> He also thought about a follow-up to ''[[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]]'', and began to develop a darker project he had planned with [[John Sayles]] called ''[[Night Skies]]'', in which malevolent aliens terrorize a family.<ref name="brode" /><ref name="Lambie 2019" />

Filming ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' in Tunisia caused a sense of loneliness in Spielberg, far from his family and friends, and made memories of his childhood creation resurface.<ref name="brode" /><ref name="McBride pp323-38" /> He told screenwriter [[Melissa Mathison]] about ''Night Skies'', and developed a subplot from the failed project in which Buddy, the only friendly alien, befriends an [[autism|autistic]] child. Buddy's abandonment on Earth in the script's final scene inspired the concept of ''E.T.''<ref name="McBride pp323-38" /> Mathison wrote a first draft titled ''E.T. and Me'' in eight weeks,<ref name="McBride pp323-38" /> which Spielberg considered perfect.<ref name="20thAnniversaryDVD" /> The script went through two more drafts, one by [[Matthew Robbins (screenwriter)|Matthew Robbins]] which deleted an "[[Eddie Haskell]]"–esque friend of Elliott's, named Lance.<ref name="Gaines 2022" /> Robbins helped create the chase sequence and he suggested the scene where E.T. got drunk.<ref name="brode" />

In mid-1981, while ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' was being promoted, [[Columbia Pictures]] met with Spielberg to discuss the script, after having to develop ''Night Skies'' with the director as the intended sequel to ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''. However, Marvin Atonowsky, the head of Columbia Pictures' marketing and research development, concluded that it had limited commercial potential, believing that it would appeal to mostly young children.<ref name="McBride2011 pp323-38" /> John Veitch, president of Columbia's worldwide productions, also felt that the script was not good or scary enough to be financially viable. On the advice of Atonowsky and Veitch, Columbia CEO [[Frank Price]], who had already funneled nearly $1 million into the film's development (mostly on creature designer Rick Baker's alien models), was now calling it "a wimpy Walt Disney movie". He informed Spielberg that the project was officially being put into [[Turnaround (filmmaking)|turnaround]];<ref name="Nashawaty 2024" /> Spielberg took the project to [[Sid Sheinberg]], president of [[MCA Inc.|MCA]], then the parent company of [[Universal Pictures]].<ref name="Caulfield 1982 Gossip" /><ref name="McBride2011 pp323-38" /> Spielberg told Sheinberg to acquire the E.T. script from Columbia Pictures, which he did for $1{{nbsp}}million and struck a deal with Price in which Columbia would retain 5% of the film's net profits. Veitch later recalled that "I think [in 1982] we made more on that picture than we did on any of ''our'' films."<ref name="McBride2011 pp323-38" />