5) E.T.
One of Spielberg’s great achievements is family favourite E.T., which remains one of most cherished movies for anyone who grew up in the 1980s. Those kids would have felt pretty differently about the film if the director’s original version had been made, though.
After Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg had an idea to follow it up with a sci-fi/horror movie. The result was Night Skies, a script about a bunch of evil aliens with deadly long bony fingers who terrorize a helpless family. However, Spielberg grew to hate the idea – later commenting “I must have taken leave of my senses” – and binned the script. He did like the subplot about a friendly alien befriending a young boy, though, and fleshed that out into its own movie.
Still, Spielberg clinged to the idea of a sci-fi/horror and later rewrote Night Skies as Nocturnal Fears, a shockingly scary sequel to E.T. which would have seen E.T.’s evil brethren invading Earth. Mr. Spielberg, your senses have gone again!