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How Steven Spielberg saved Gizmo in Gremlins

Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

From Digital Spy

Looking back at the movie Gremlins, there is no denying that it is one of the strangest Christmas movies to watch during the holiday season, but we all love it thanks to cute, little Gizmo.

Although Steven Spielberg didn't direct the 1984 horror-comedy, he watched from the wings as an executive producer while Joe Dante took on directorial duties, but also had a vital role to play in the movie's history.

Spielberg was reportedly solely responsible for saving the iconic Gizmo after the friendly fuzzball was nearly given the chop in early drafts of the film.

Photo credit: Warner Bros.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Dante revealed that Gizmo was supposed to turn into a snarling monster like the rest of the mogwai, and would have if not for Spielberg.

"After seeing all of our tests with Gizmo," recalled Dante, "[Spielberg] liked Gizmo so much that he said, 'You know, we really shouldn't get rid of him, he should stick around and be the hero's pal for the entire picture.'"

Instead, Gizmo survived the massacre at Kingston Falls and lived to fight another day alongside the movie's lead (human) actor Zach Galligan.

Dante said that this in itself came with its own problems, especially with Gizmo only supposed to appear in the first part of the movie.

"[It was] terrifying for us, because we were about four weeks away from shooting," said Dante. "We had no idea how to make this puppet, which was really small, carry a movie, and be a character, basically."

Thankfully, something about the Furby prototype and his murderous counterparts won critics over to be one of the best creature features of the decade.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch hit cinemas in 1990 with a much larger cast of gremlins, and although there is a third movie still circling development hell, it is hard now to imagine the legacy of the franchise without Gizmo.


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