3. The trouble with ET

ET wasn't exactly the easiest creature to create.

After spending money on developing ideas and models for the planned Night Skies, Rick Baker wasn't exactly in the best of moods when it came to the man who shut it down.

Designer Ed Verreaux, meanwhile, ploughed $700,000 into the creation of a prototype creature, which The Beard deemed useless.

In the end, he turned to Carlo Rambaldi , who designed the animatronics, while various teams worked on the look of his face, which blends the likes if Albert Einstein and Ernest Hemingway (no, really).

Finally, at a cost of $1.5 million, the director had something he could shoot with.

Thanks to a combination of little people Tamara De Treaux and Pat Bilon, and 12-year-old Matthew De Meritt, who was born without legs, ET had movement. The voice - a gurgling rasp - would come later.

Spielberg dubbed the final beastie something "only a mother could love." The Mars company agreed and refused to let him use M&Ms as ET's sweet of choice.

The Hershey Company saw an opening and offered Reese's Pieces instead. The rest is movie marketing history.

Now he just needed to film the thing...

Next: ET's shoot