File this one away in the 'What Could Have Been' cabinet.
After CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND became a hit, Columbia Pictures wanted a sequel, so director Steven Spielberg set about developing a much darker, horror-tinged film that would act as a follow-up to the 1977 classic. Originally called WATCH THE SKIES (which was also an early CLOSE ENCOUNTERS title), the film eventually became known as NIGHT SKIES. With John Sayles on script duties, the legendary FX maestro Rick Baker was hired to design the alien concepts. While the film never came to fruition, Baker has given us a look at some of his designs for the film via his Twitter, and we've got them for you to check out below.
While NIGHT SKIES was never made, concepts from the film ended up in several other Spielberg projects, including E.T. and POLTERGEIST. Check out Baker's designs for NIGHT SKIES below.
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
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
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
Happy days sculpting the prototype arms for the Night Skies alien back in 1980 pic.twitter.com/x2z2ftL1ll
— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 24, 2014
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
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