Uploaded October 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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A fan-edited movie trailer for Steven Spielberg's cancelled film project "Night Skies". The horror film was developed as a spiritual successor to Close Encounters of the Third Kind for Columbia Pictures, since Spielberg had no interest in a sequel. The story was about a family being terrorized by a group of malicious, animal-mutilating aliens, until one of the aliens named Buddy, who was kind and befriends the family's autistic son.

Steven Spielberg planned on producing the film and hired The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Tobe Hooper to direct, Hooper declined it due to the sci-fi elements, but he suggested the plot as a supernatural story instead. Harrison Ford's then-wife and screenwriter, Melissa Mathison, read the script and developed on the sub-plot about the autistic boy and Buddy the alien into its own story.

As a result, the material from this cancelled project served as inspiration for Poltergeist and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, including characteristics from Night Skies' aliens were applied into Gremlins' Gizmo and Stripe by Spielberg's assistance.

Special Thanks:
John Notstamos - VHS Effects
youtube.com/channel/UCsqIV7dNPIxv2VMqfB7hMwQ

Read the script here:
ia601207.us.archive.org/6/items/NightSkies/Night%20Skies.pdf

Footage Used:
Invaders from Mars (1986)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Movie & Theatrical Trailer
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Mac & Me
Critters

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