Before Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, there was Firelight.
Steven Spielberg‘s first feature-length film also happened to his first story about life beyond Earth. Unlike the benevolent visitors in his later films the aliens of Firelight come to our planet with the intention of collecting human specimens for a zoo—à la the classic Twilight Zone episode, “People Are Alike All Over.”
The future Oscar winner was inspired by a meteor shower, which showed him “a world beyond the Earth,” the filmmaker explained in Susan Goldman Rubin’s 2001 book Steven Spielberg: Crazy for Movies. The experience, which he shared with his father Arnold Spielberg, inspired him to “tell stories not of this world.”
Remembering Steven Spielberg’s very first UFO movie, Firelight
Firelight was shot over the course of Spielberg’s junior year of high school, with family, friends and Arizona State University drama students recruited for the ambitious production.
“The moment he started a project, it was like the Pied Piper,” recalled his sister Anne Spielberg, who served as script supervisor. “Everybody in the neighborhood wanted something to do with it. I used to get jealous. The girl who was the most popular girl in my class [would] come over to be in Steven’s movie. It was exciting and he made it fun and the kids were totally committed. They worked their butts off.
The film got its own premiere at the Phoenix Little Theater, which Spielberg’s father rented out for the night of March 24, 1964. Tickets were sold at 75 cents a pop and the 16-year-old director had his very first box office gross of $1.
While Firelight ran more than two hours long, only a small amount of footage survives to this day (see below).
In the decades after Firelight, Spielberg later criticized the low-budget production as “one of the worst four movies ever made,” Richard Schickel wrote in Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective. “But, really, considering the age and inexperience of its writer-director, it is not all bad.”
More importantly, the experience confirmed Spielberg wanted to become a filmmaker. After viewing the final cut of Firelight in the family living room alongside the cast and crew, “I knew what I wanted,” the director said. “I wanted Hollywood.”
What’s next for Steven Spielberg?
Spielberg returns to the sci-fi genre June 12 with Disclosure Day.
As its title suggests, the anticipated summer blockbuster centers on global disclosure of the truth about extraterrestrial life.
Based on an original story from the director, the film stars Emily Blunt (Margaret Fairchild), Colin Firth (Noah Scanlon), Josh O’Connor (Dr. Daniel Kellner), Colman Domingo (Hugo Wakefield), Eve Hewson (Jane Blankenship), Wyatt Russell (Jackson), Tommy Martinez (Santiago) and Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Casper Boyd).
David Koepp wrote the script, marking his fifth collaboration with Spielberg after Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), War of the Worlds (2005) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).
Watch the final trailer for Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day
What is Disclosure Day rated?
The film is rated PG-13 for action/violence, some bloody images and strong language.
Tickets for Disclosure Day are on sale now.