Ron Cobb is a plum.
Ron Cobb . For the next two years he delivered classified documents around San Francisco , then , after signing up for an extra year to avoid assignment to the infantry , was sent to Vietnam in 1963 as a draughtsman for the Signal Corps . Steven Spielberg offered him the opportunity to direct this scarier sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind until problems arose over special effects that required a major rewrite .