Special-effects legend Rick Baker recently posted a series of photographs showcasing his unused creature designs from Night Skies, the alien movie Steven Spielberg never made. Cinematellica writes that Baker made 11 unique extraterrestrials based on a list of personality descriptions and a script written by John Sayles. On Twitter, Baker implicated the similarities between Spielberg's E.T. and his own designs. "Not finished, no eyes. Cover the top of his head and tell me who he looks like," tweeted Baker.
As requested The Night Skies alien. Not finished, no eyes. Cover the top of his head and tell me who he looks like. pic.twitter.com/r3PxK1T98A
— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 22, 2014
Night Skies was intended to be a darker sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which pivoted around a man's encounter with a UFO. Spielberg eventually canned the horror science fiction film in favor of what would later become E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial after meeting with screenwriter Melissa Mathison.
Unhappy days,film shut down. I wanted to change the body of the ET,the mantis like arm placement just didn't work imo pic.twitter.com/mNMEAP9yem
— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 26, 2014
Happy days sculpting the prototype arms for the Night Skies alien back in 1980 pic.twitter.com/x2z2ftL1ll
— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 24, 2014
Here was a quick clay sketch that I did in 1980 for one of the nicer younger NIGHT Skies aliens pic.twitter.com/NKHVXrGNLu
— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 23, 2014
He does look like Edward G and the others.But painting out the top of the head, adding eyes,and small tweaks.ET"S dad pic.twitter.com/XOdbSNDmAd
— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 23, 2014