ET looking out window with Henry Thomas in a scene from the film 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial', 1982. Photo / Getty
ET looking out window with Henry Thomas in a scene from the film 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial', 1982. Photo / Getty
Movie sequels are rarely as good as the originals, but still many of them get made and go on to disappoint.
Not these ones though.
Nope, these sequel ideas were so bad that the money hungry movie studios weren't even willing to put up the cash to make them inthe first place. And for that we should be eternally grateful.
E.T
Steven Spielberg and Melissa Mathison wrote a nine-page treatment for a potential sequel to the 1982 movie and all we can say is THANK (insert your god of choice) it never got made.
Speaking about the aborted sequel that was to be called E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears, the legendary director said:
"Sequels can be very dangerous because they compromise your truth as an artist. I think a sequel to E.T. would do nothing but rob the original of its virginity. People only remember the latest episode, while the pilot tarnishes." Now before we take you through the rough storyline, take a deep breath, because it is a doozy.
Another spaceship lands in the forest but this time it's full of evil aliens who are searching for a stranded extraterrestrial named Zrek.
These aliens are carnivorous and belong to a group that have been at war with aliens from E.T.'s group for decades.
The three kids, Elliott, Michael, Gertie, are summoned to the spaceship and are interrogated about the whereabouts of the Zrek.
As Elliott is being questioned, he yells out for E.T.'s help before passing out, both physically and emotionally drained.
But then E.T shows up and saves the day, according to the treatment:
"He [E.T.] and Elliott embrace with tears in their eyes ... Elliott, Michael, Gertie, Steve, Tyler and Greg leave the evil Mothership and wait for E.T. to come out after reprogramming the alien's navigation controls. E.T. exits the ship and rejoins his faithful friends."
The end.
Gladiator
You would think the fact that Russell Crowe's character, Maximus, was killed at the end of the 2000 movie would make a sequel kind of ... impossible.
But never one to shy away from a challenge, Aussie singer and screenwriter Nick Cave penned a potential script for Gladiator 2 after a special request from Russell Crowe.
Here's what Cave told podcaster Marc Maron about his idea:
"So, he [Maximus] goes down to purgatory and is sent down by the gods, who are dying in heaven because there's this one god, there's this Christ character, down on Earth who is gaining popularity and so the many gods are dying so they send Gladiator back to kill Christ and all his followers," Cave said.
"I wanted to call it Christ Killer, and in the end you find out that the main guy was his son, so he has to kill his son and he's tricked by the gods and all of this sort of stuff. So it ends with, he becomes this eternal warrior and it ends with this 20-minute war scene which follows all the wars in history, right up to Vietnam and all that sort of stuff and it was wild." Did you follow that? Nah, us either.
When asked about a potential sequel to his 1995 film, director David Fincher said, "I would be less interested in that than I would in having cigarettes put out in my eyes".
But that didn't stop the movie studio from going ahead and developing a script.
Fincher read it and it's fair to say he wasn't impressed.
"It didn't make a lot of sense to me," the director told Total Film.
"They wanted Morgan [Freeman] to have become clairvoyant in some way and that was the way he was now solving serial-killer cases! And I was like, 'Well, that's handy!' It's the kind of high concept you worry about. So I don't know that there is going to be a sequel. I do know that they have to call me if they're going to do it ..."
The movie studio eventually gave up on the sequel but they held onto their idea and used it as the basis for the 2015 film Solace starring Anthony Hopkins and Colin Farrell.
FYI - Solace wasn't exactly a hit with the critics, with We Got This Covered writing: "I'm deeply envious of Anthony Hopkins' future seeing abilities. If only I had his powers I could have avoided wasting my time with this terrible psychic serial killer drivel."
The Bodyguard
Even though the 1992 original starring Whitney Houston was panned by critics, Kevin Costner said that a sequel to The Bodyguard was once in the works.
And get this, apparently Princess Diana wanted to star in it.
"She wanted me to write it for her," Costner told Anderson Cooper in 2012. "I said, 'I'll tailor it for you if you're interested.' She goes, 'I am interested.'"
Costner went ahead and commissioned a script for the potential film and received a first draft just one day before Princess Diana was killed in Paris.
After her death, Costner told Premiere magazine: "I picked it up [the script] and the first 30 pages were totally her. It was dignified, sexy, smart, funny - and I couldn't finish. I stopped. It broke my heart."
