I never liked E.T. I must be the only kid in the planet who hated that freaky thing when it came out. But these initial designs by the amazing Rick Baker — the true ancestors of the iconic marooned alien — would have scarred my brain forever. He recently published them in his Twitter account.
As Baker points out, the designs were made for another Spielberg project called The Night Skies. You can clearly see E.T.’s DNA in all of them, especially this one below.
Rick Baker is one of the most important special makeup effects artist in the world. He has worked in movies like E.T., Gremlins 2, Men in Black, Batman Forever or Hellboy; transformed Michael Jackson into a “werecat” for his Thriller videoclip, and received the very first Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling for An American Werewolf in London. One funny fact: His wife for 10 years — Elaine Parkyn — was Emperor Palpatine in the original version of The Empire Strikes Back. That’s how good Baker is.