Melissa Mathison, the screenwriter behind E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and several other films, died Wednesday in Los Angeles after battling neuroendocrine cancer for several months. She was 65.
Mathison received an Oscar nomination for E.T., which she said she wrote in a tiny office in Hollywood. Steven Spielberg worked closely with Mathison to develop the concept of the film. In a statement released Wednesday, he said: "Melissa had a heart that shined with generosity and love and burned as bright as the heart she gave E.T." In the DVD commentary for a special edition of E.T., Spielberg said Mathison, who was also an associate producer on the movie, delivered a 107-page first draft of the film, and he read it in about an hour. "I was just knocked out," he said. "It was a script I was willing to shoot the next day. It was so honest, and Melissa's voice made a direct connection with my heart."
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