Steven Spielberg (114 page)

Information on
E.T.
merchandising and tie-ins (1982) is from Stephen J. Sansweet, “MCA Inc. Expects
E.T.
Merchandise to Outsell the Movie,”
Wall
Street
Journal,
July 19; David Van Biema, “Life Is Sweet for Jack Dowd as Spielberg’s Hit Film Has
E.T.
Lovers Picking Up the (Reese’s) Pieces,”
People,
July 26; Bernice Kanner, “The Selling of
E.T.,
” 
New
York,
August 9; “MCA Ties 43 Merchandisers to
E.T.
Windfall; Women’s Undies?”
Variety,
August 11; and “Start Your Christmas Shopping Here” (Universal Studios advertisement for E.T. Earth Center),
LAT,
December 3; see also, “Universal Quietly Shutters $1 Mil
E.T.
Facility,”
DV,
January 27, 1983; Wilson, “E.T. Returns to Test His Midas Touch”; and “U Tours’ E.T. Stops with Spielberg Aboard,”
DV,
June 3, 1991. Michael Ventura’s comments are from “Steven Spielberg: the Vision and the Nightmare,”
L.A.
Weekly,
June 1–7, 1984.

Spielberg’s earnings from the film were reported in “Spielberg’s Creativity,”
NYT,
December 25, 1982; Callo gave the figure at $1 million per day in “Director Steven Spielberg Takes the Wraps Off E.T….” Spielberg’s 1982 real estate purchases were reported in
“Phone
Home?
How Can You Phone Home When It’s Not Built Yet?”
LAHE,
October 1;
LAHE
item, October 30; and
HR
items, November 3 and 17. “Quelle Barn” was described in Kurt Andersen, “Architecture: Gwathmey Siegel & Associates: Steven Spielberg and Amy living’s East Hampton Residence,”
Architectural
Digest,
May 1988; see also Suzanne Stephens, “Architecture: Gwathmey Siegel: Steven Spielberg’s Guesthouse in East Hampton,”
Architectural
Digest,
November 1994. Spielberg’s 1982 purchase of a sled from
Citizen
Kane
was reported in “Spielberg Acquires Original ‘Rosebud’ Sled,”
DV,
June 11; Caulfield, “Citizen Spielberg,”
LAT,
June 11; and “Citizen Spielberg’s Purchase,”
NYT,
June 13.

Sources on
Poltergeist
include the author’s interviews with David Giler and Bob Gale; Callo, “Steven Spielberg’s Musings on
Poltergeist”;
and the 1982 MGM/UA documentary
The
Making
of
“Poltergeist,
”
directed by Frank Marshall. The screenplay, n.d., by Spielberg, Michael Grais, and Mark Victor, based on Spielberg’s story, was novelized by James Kahn, Warner Books, 1982. Richard B. Matheson’s comments on “Little Girl Lost” are from his interview with the author and from Zicree,
The
“Twilight
Zone”
Compan
ion.
Spielberg commented on
The
Texas
Chain
Saw
Massacre
and the genesis of
Polter
geist
in MGM’s 1982
Poltergeist
“Production Notes” and press release, “Steven Spielberg Takes Terror to the Suburbs in MGM’s
Poltergeist.
”

Articles on the film and the authorship controversy between Spielberg and Tobe Hooper include (1981): Jeff Silverman, “Well, You Don’t Expect
Every
Spirit to Just Sit in the Background Quietly …,”
LAHE,
June 2, and “Those Noisy Spirits Never Rest,”
LAHE,
June 5; and in 1982, Gregg Kilday, “Hooper’s Vision of the Otherworld,”
LAHE
, May 14; Dale Pollock,
“Poltergeist:
Whose Film Is It?”
LAT,
May 24; Aljean Harmetz, “Film Rating System Under New Fire,”
NYT,
June 2; Army Archerd column,
DV,
June 3; “DGA Looking into
Poltergeist
But Is Not Saying Why,”
DV,
June 15; Jack Searles, “Hooper Gets Some Recognition,”
LAHE,
June 19; and Jim Harwood, “Hooper Awarded 15G Damages for ‘Slight’; Confirm Spielberg Spat,”
Variety,
June 23. MGM’s advertisement featuring Spielberg over Hooper is in the pressbook for the film; the studio’s ad apologizing to Hooper about the trailer is from
HR,
July 9, 1982; Spielberg’s June 2, 1982, letter to Hooper was published as an ad in
Variety
on June 9. Information on the cost of the film and the shooting dates is from (1981): Army Archerd column,
DV,
May 8; “Hollywood Soundtrack,”
Variety,
August 12; and Roderick Mann, “A Scene Seen Leads to
Poltergeist
Role,”
LAT,
August 13; and from Pollock,
“Poltergeist:
Whose Film Is It?” Reviews (1982) include David Ehrenstein, “The Hollow Horror of Spielberg’s
Poltergeist,
”
L.A.
Reader,
June 4; and Pauline Kael, “The Pure and the Impure,”
The
New
Yorker,
June 14.

Information on
Gremlins
is from the author’s interviews with Joe Dante and Michael Finnell; an interview with Dante in Maitland McDonagh,
Filmmaking
on
the
Fringe:
The
Good,
The
Bad,
and
the
Deviant
Directors,
Citadel Press, 1995; David Chute, “Dante’s Inferno,”
Film
Comment,
June 1984; and David Ansen, “Little Toyshop of Horrors,”
Newsweek,
June 18, 1984. Spielberg’s comment about helping younger filmmakers is from David Blum, “Steven Spielberg and the Dread Hollywood Backlash,”
New
York,
March 24, 1986.

The author interviewed the following people who worked on
Twilight
Zone
—
The
Movie:
Dante, Daviau, Jon Davison, Finnell, John Landis, and Richard B. Matheson. The production, the fatal 1982 accident, the investigation, and the trial were chronicled in two 1988 books: Farber and Green,
Outrageous
Conduct:
Art,
Ego,
and
the
“Twilight
Zone”
Case,
and Ron LaBrecque,
Special
Effects:
Disaster
at
“Twilight
Zone”:
The
Trag
edy
and
the
Trial.
Farber and Green also published three articles in the August 28, 1988,
LAT:
“Trapped in the Twilight Zone,” “Trials of the Prosecution,” and “The Forgotten Man.” The text of Spielberg’s December 1, 1982, letter to the National Transportation Safety Board was printed in sources including David Robb, “Spielberg Denies Presence at Fatal
Twilight
Crash,”
DV,
December 10, 1982; “Spielberg Denies He Was at
Twilight
Chopper Crash Scene,”
Variety,
December 15, 1982; and the book by Farber and Green. Harland W. Braun’s seven-page letter to Gilbert Garcetti, chief deputy district attorney of Los Angeles County, is dated November 20, 1985.

Additional information on the origin of
Twilight
Zone
—
The
Movie
is from Engel,
Rod
Serling:
The
Dreams
and
Nightmares
of
Life
in
the
Twilight
Zone;
Sander,
Serling:
The
Rise
and
Twilight
of
Television’s
Last
Angry
Man;
Zicree,
The
Twilight
Zone
Companion
(second edition); Jim Robbins, “Spielberg Re-Enters
Twilight
Zone,
”
DV,
May 25, 1982; Serling, “Notes for a
Twilight
Zone
Movie,”
The
Twilight
Zone
Magazine,
April 1983; and Robert Martin, “From Down Under to ‘20,000 Feet’” (George Miller interview),
The
Twilight
Zone
Magazine,
June 1983. Robert Bloch’s novelization of the film was published in 1983 by Warner Books. Before the accident, Paul M. Sammon observed the filming of Landis’s Vic Morrow segment for his article “On the Set of
Twilight
Zone,
”
The
Twilight
Zone
Magazine,
October 1983; the same issue contains Sammon’s “TZ Interview: John Landis.” With Don Shay, Sammon wrote about the film’s special effects in “Shadow and Substance,”
Cinefex,
October 1983.

Articles on the filming and its aftermath also include (1982): Jerry Belcher and Charles P. Wallace, “Vic Morrow, 2 Children Die in Film Accident,”
LAT,
July 24; Lennie La Guire and Andy Furillo, “Death on the
Twilight
Zone
Set,”
LAHE,
July 24; Army Archerd columns,
DV,
November 18 and December 6; Robb, “D.A. Wants Crash Re-Creation,”
DV,
November 23; Robb, “Spielberg Again in
Zone
Focus,”
DV,
November 30; Furillo,
“Twilight
Zone
Story Revealed,”
LAHE,
December 1; Dale Pollock,
“Twilight
Zone
Allegations Denied,”
LAT,
December 2; Furillo, “Spielberg Says He Wasn’t on
Twilight
Set,”
LAHE,
December 11; “Director Denies Presence at Fatal Movie Crash,”
NYT,
December 12;

And (1983): Furillo, “Warners: Child
Twilight
Victim
‘Assumed the Risk,’”
LAHE,
May 13; Furillo, “Are
Twilight
Zone
Crew members on a Blacklist?”
LAHE,
August 7; and Robb,
“Twilight
Zone
Witness Is Still ‘Missing,’”
DV,
December 16; (1984): Robb, “Welder’s Hood Impairs Sight of
Zone
Spec-Effects Man,”
DV,
January 25; and Randall Sullivan, “Death in the Twilight Zone,”
Rolling
Stone,
June 21; (1985): Robert W. Stewart, “Attorney Pressed on
Twilight
Zone
Allegations,”
LAT,
November 1; Nancy Hill-Holtzman and Furillo, “Spielberg Dragged into
Twilight
Zone
Case,”
LAHE,
November 1; “Deputy DA Says Spielberg Not Tied to
Twilight
Zone,
”
LAHE,
November 2; Stewart, “Movie Deaths —Spielberg ‘Not Involved,’”
LAT,
November 3; Robb, “Former
Zone
Prosecutor Denies Spielberg ‘Conspiracy’ Involvement,”
DV,
November 4; and Stewart, “Prosecutors Accused of Curbing
Twilight
Probe,”
LAT,
November 21;

And (1986): Paul Feldman and Bill Fair, “Witness in Film Deaths Eludes D.A.,”
LAT,
July 10; Furillo, “Technician Tells Role in Fatal Copter Scene,”
LAHE,
December 2; Furillo,
“Twilight
Witness Surprises Defense,”
LAHE,
December 3; Feldman, “Fired Mortars Without Watching Copter,
Twilight
Aide Says,”
LAT,
December 3; and “Witness Says He Approved Explosion in Film,”
NYT,
December 3; (1987): Feldman, “Landis Admits Hiring Children Illegally in Filming Fatal Scene,”
LAT,
February 19; Cynthia Gorney, “Risk and Reality: Hollywood on Trial,”
Washington
Post,
March 18; AP,
“Twilight
Zone 
Tragedy Ups H’wood Concern for Safety,”
HR,
May 5; Kathleen A. Hughes,
“Twilight
Zone
Case, Nearing a Close, Has Made Film Makers More Cautious,”
Wall
Street
Journal,
May 12; Caulfield and Michael Cieply,
“Twilight
Aftermath: It’s Caution on the Movie Set,”
LAT,
May 20; Terry Pristin, “Ethnically Diverse
Twilight
Jury Came Together on Very First Ballot,”
LAT,
May 30; Feldman, “Outraged: Landis Relieved but Calls Prosecution Dishonest,”
LAT,
June 2; and Gay Jervey, “Misfire in the Twilight Zone,”
The
American
Lawyer,
December;

And (1988): Robb, “Landis, Allingham, Cohn Cited for
Zone
Conduct,”
DV,
January 19; Lea Purwin D’Agostino, “Twilight Zone,” and Gary Kesselman, “Twilight Zone II” (letters to the editor),
The
American
Lawyer,
April; (1990): Sean Mitchell,
“Twilight
Zone:
A Word from the Producer,”
LAT,
July 18; and (1992): Kathleen O’Steen, “Danger ‘Zone’ Still Exists, Film Pros Say” and
“Zone
testimony takes its toll,”
DV,
July 23.

Reviews of
Twilight
Zone
—
The
Movie
(1983) include Richard Corliss, “Bad Dreams,”
Time,
June 20; Vincent Canby,
“Twilight
Zone
Is Adapted to the Big Screen,”
NYT,
June 24; David Ansen, “Twilight’s Last Gleaming,”
Newsweek,
June 27; and J. Hoberman, “Zoned Again,”
The
Village
Voice,
July 5. Spielberg reflected on the accident and on the 1983 Academy Awards in Pollock, “Spielberg Philosophical over
E.T.
Oscar Defeat,”
LAT,
April 13, 1983. The comments by Spielberg and Richard Attenborough about the DGA Awards are from Dougan,
The
Actors’
Director:
Richard
Attenborough
Behind
the
Camera.

The author interviewed the following people involved in the filming of
Indiana
Jones
and
the
Temple
of
Doom
(working title:
Indiana
Jones
and
the
Temple
of
Death):
Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz, Louis B. Race, and David Tomblin. The screenplay by Huyck and Katz, from a story by George Lucas, was published in 1995 by O.S.P. Publishing as part of the
Premiere
magazine series The Movie Script Library. An uncredited draft of the screenplay is dated March 10, 1983. In 1984, a novelization by James Kahn was published by Ballantine, and a children’s story adaptation by Les Martin was published by Random House.

Other sources on the filming include Champlin,
George
Lucas:
The
Creative
Impulse;
Pollock, “Spielberg Gets Place to Settle Down,”
LAT,
May 21, 1984; Hluchy and MacKay, “Spielberg’s Magic Screen”; Elkins, “Steven Spielberg on
Indiana
Jones
and
the
Temple
of
Doom”;
Thomas McKelvey Cleaver, “Frank Marshall Adventuring Alongside
Indiana
Jones
and
the
Temple
of
Doom,
”
Starlog,
June 1984; George E. Turner, “Visual Effects for
Indiana
Jones
and
the
Temple
of
Doom,”
American
Cinematograph
er,
July 1984; and Adam Pirani, “Robert Watts: Secrets of the
Temple
of
Doom,
”
Starlog,
May 1985.