Movie buffs had a chance to own a piece of Hollywood history when the original mechanical animatronic ET head made it Steven Spielberg The extremely popular film ET The Extra-Terrestrial was auctioned.
The event kicked off Thursday with a Robots, Wizards, Heroes & Aliens themed night in Beverly Hills, according to TMZ, as part of a four-day event titled Hollywood Legends through Julian's Auctions.
The winning bidder paid a whopping five $635,000 to acquire the ET head, created by legendary special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi.
A total of twelve bids had been submitted at the time the winning bid was submitted.
The head is composed of a metal frame and an outer skin of foam latex, which could activate the pulsation of veins in some close-up scenes.
The original mechanical animatronic ET head, created for Steven Spielberg's wildly popular film ET The Extra-Terrestrial, sold at auction for $635,000
The ET was sold through Julian's Auctions on Thursday at an event entitled Hollywood Legends
Rambaldi, who also designed the aliens for Spielberg's Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, created four heads for the filming of ET, one as the main animatronic and the other for facial expressions, as well as a costume, according to Wikipedia.
The puppet, which featured E.T.'s face controlled by a team of animatronic puppeteers, was created in three months at a cost of $1.5 million.
Two little people, Tamara De Treaux and Pat Bilon, and 12-year-old Matthew DeMeritt, who was born without legs, took turns wearing the costume during the shoot that lasted from September to December 1981 on a budget of $10.5 million .
DeMeritt basically walked on his hands and played all the scenes where the ET character had to walk awkwardly or fall over.
The head was placed above the actors, who could see through slits in the chest.
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Melissa Mathison, ET The Extra-Terrestrial hit theaters with a thunderclap in June 1982.
The film tells the story of a boy named Elliot who befriends an alien named ET, who remained on Earth.
Together with his friends and family, Elliott must find a way to help ET find his way home.
The cast included Dee Wallace, child stars Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore, as well as Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, C. Thomas Howell, KC Martel and Sean Frye.
The head consists of a metal frame and an outer skin of foam latex, which in some close-up scenes had the ability to activate the pulsation of veins
A total of twelve bids had been submitted at the time the winning bid was submitted
Drew Barrymore was also part of the cast, which included Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, C. Thomas Howell, KC Martel and Sean Frye
ET The Extra-Terrestrial became a huge hit, eventually earning more than $792 million against a budget of $10.5 million
By the end of its theatrical run in 1983, the film had grossed $359 million in the US and Canada and $619 million worldwide.
The film was re-released in 1985 and again in 2002, earning another $60 million and $68 million respectively, for a worldwide total of just over $792 million.
The sci-fi hit performed strongly at the box office and received nine Oscar nominations at the 55th Academy Awards, winning for Best Original Score, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound and Best Sound Editing.
The film's five other nominations included Best Picture and Best Director for Spielberg.
ET The Extra-Terrestrial also won five Saturn Awards and two Golden Globe Awards during awards season.
In 1994, the film was added to the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress, which deemed the film “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”