These days, you can’t swing a stick without hitting a reboot. We’re nothing as audiences if not nostalgic, so the movie studios keep us knee-deep in our old favorites reimagined. But, according to Drew Barrymore, there are at least two beloved throwback classics that will never get modern sequels.
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During an appearance on What What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Barrymore, star of the Netflix zombie-com Santa Clarita Diet,dashed the hopes of E.T. fans with a disheartening revelation: Hanging out in Spielberg’s house when she was little (#childhoodgoals), she overheard the acclaimed director say of the 1982 alien film, “We’re never going to make a sequel. It’s just as it is.”
Barrymore, of course, played Gertie, the precious kid sister of E.T.’s BFF, Elliott (played by Henry Thomas). It’s no wonder a fan called into Watch What Happens Live to pick Barrymore’s brain. Could we possibly get a reboot that focuses on Elliott and Gertie as grown-ups? A reboot that revolves around Elliott and Gertie’s kids meeting their cute alien friend?
It goes without saying such a reboot would make a lot of ’80s and ’90s kids very happy.
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I know the movie was a major component of my childhood memories. As any good ’80s babies would, my brother and I dressed up as Elliott and Gertie for Halloween. He rode his bike with a basket, and I carried our E.T. doll with light-up heart. And, now that I have kids of my own, I’ve obviously introduced them to the movie — and the psychedelic ride at Universal Studios.
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But while driving home the point that older millennials (and/or our offspring) likely won’t see E.T. reimagined in this lifetime, Barrymore casually killed any inkling of yet another iconic film remake, this one from 1975.
“In the early ’80s, there was not always a lot of talk of sequels,” Barrymore said. “Because Steven Spielberg made Jaws and E.T., there was a lot of talk within his camp about sequels. But he never wanted to make them.”
To be fair, Jaws did actually spawn a franchise several films long, albeit without Spielberg’s blessing. Jaws: The Revenge was directed by Joseph Sargent, Jaws 2 by Jeannot Szwarc and Jaws 3-D by Joe Alves. All were panned, arguably validating Spielberg’s instincts about potential sequels.
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Still, it would have been fun to see what Spielberg would do with a sequel now that special effects have evolved so much. Richard Dreyfuss is still rockin’ and rollin’, so Hooper could still be front and center. Regardless, fans new and old would surely eat up a Spielberg-sanctioned Jaws sequel.
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With the new Jurassic World films proving to be successful, maybe Spielberg could change his mind. And, if there is a cinema god, the director will revisit both E.T. and Jaws. An older millennial can dream, right?
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