At the end of 1973, Spielberg signed a contract with Columbia Pictures to shoot a science fiction film with Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips as producers.
Spielberg originally planned to shoot a documentary or a low-cost film about UFO believers. He later changed his original intention and decided to make a film that relied on the level of technology. The film was named "Watch the Skies" in December 1973. Spielberg asked Paul Schrader to write the script and planned to start filming at the end of 1974. Later, because of the filming of "Jaws", Spielberg postponed the filming of "Watch the Skies".
During the preparation stage, Spielberg and the screenwriter Schrader had a disagreement. The former immediately found John Hill to rewrite the script, but Spielberg's script was also rejected by Spielberg. Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins made suggestions for kidnapping children. Spielberg began to write the script himself. His writing style was well received by the movie "Pinocchio", the theme song "Blessing Song of the Stars". The title of the film was later changed to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and Dr. J. Allen Haynick, who worked with the U.S. Air Force on the Blue Book Project, served as the film’s scientific advisor.
