The prop Steven Spielberg called “the eighth wonder of the movie world”
Throughout his career, Steven Spielberg has enjoyed a long, complicated, and regularly iconic association with the props department, with several creations securing their own place in cinematic history.
The famously faulty mechanical shark from Jaws is the first that comes to mind, with the filmmaker’s entire approach to what became the highest-grossing film ever released at the time changing after he realised he was never going to get ‘Bruce’ to behave on-camera the way he wanted.
Two decades later, the jaw-dropping animatronics used to bring the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park to life saw Spielberg once again helm the top-earning movie that had ever seen the inside of a cinema, which was a record he’d stolen from himself when the classic blockbuster out-performer E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
The three-time Academy Award winner holds special praise for the titular alien, though, with his glowing appraisal being used as one of the key selling points of the original model being placed up for auction. Given the beloved sci-fi flick’s status among audiences of multiple generations, it’s no surprise that the little guy ended up selling for a cool $2.56million.
Created by special effects legend Carlo Rambaldi in 1981, the original model was always going to fetch a pretty penny. In the associated listing, it was heralded as a “one-of-a-kind animatronic figure, featuring 85 points of articulation” and something “considered an engineering masterpiece”.
It took a dozen people to operate, with the group being collectively referred to as ‘The 12 Souls of E.T.’ by the director, who couldn’t speak highly enough of the impressive construction. “We all kind of regard him as a living, breathing organism, he’s a real creature for me,” Spielberg said. “I think for me, in my experience, he is the eighth wonder of the movie world.”
That’s high praise indeed, and that hype job played a part in the animatronic more than doubling its pre-auction estimates of $1m, with the prospect of owning a genuine piece of Hollywood history forcing the bidders to dig much deeper into their wallets than originally anticipated.
Rambaldi, Dennis Muren, and Kenneth F. Smith were rewarded for their efforts after E.T. scooped the Oscar for ‘Best Visual Effects’ in 1983, with their work remaining so firmly embedded in the collective consciousness more than two decades later that a mechanical model rendered increasingly terrifying on account of having no flesh and displaying its innards for the world to see ended up igniting a frenzied bidding war that blew past even the most optimistic of estimates.
Of course, owning something with such a unique and iconic place in the annals of both Spielberg’s filmography and blockbuster cinema was a can’t-miss opportunity, which almost demanded an eye-watering bid to emerge victorious.
