 According to Julia Phillips (I) (qv) in her autobiography "Youll  Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again", she and the studio did not want  to meet Richard Dreyfuss (qv) price of $500,000 plus gross points  to play Roy Neary and offered the script to Al Pacino (qv),  Jack Nicholson (qv), and Gene Hackman (qv). Pacino wasnt  interested, and Nicholson thought that any actor would be  overwhelmed by the special effects. Hackman turned down the role  because he was in a troubled marriage and could not spend 16 weeks  outside of Los Angeles on location