“close encounters … was about a man whose insatiable curiosity and a developing obsession and a kind of psychic implantation drew him away from his family and with only looking back once, walked onto the mother ship. now, that was before i had kids. that was 1977. so i wrote that blithely. today, i would never have the guy leaving his family and going on the mother ship. i would have the guy doing everything he could to protect his children, so in a sense, war of the worlds does reflect my own maturity, in my own life, growing up and now having seven children.”