 A "Special Edition" version was released in 1980 (3 years after the films  original theatrical release). The original production of "Close Encounters of  the Third Kind" was plagued with schedule and budget problems. Speilberg  originally wanted to release the film in the summer of 1978, however,  Columbia Pictures (who were undergoing financial troubles at the time)  insisted that Spielberg have it ready by November 1977. Therefore many scenes  Spielberg had scripted couldnt be filmed as he originally intended due to  time constraints. After the movies huge success, Spielberg asked Columbia to  allow him to recut the picture and to shoot additional sequences; the studio  agreed at the condition that he included new scenes showing the inside of the  alien mothership (to entice audiences into the theater again). Spielberg was  given a budget of $1.5 million and seven weeks to shoot the new sequences  (some of which were shot while he was also directing 1941 (1979)). He had to  use a different director of photography (Allen Daviau) because Vilmos  Zsigmond was unavailable, and he was able to convince most of the original  cast to re