Michael Jackson movie moonwalks towards production
Monday, July 20, 2009 at 11:32AM
Always looking for a way to make a quick buck, Sony Pictures is mere signatures away from landing the rights to make a feature film using the over 80 hours of footage from Michael Jackson's comeback tour rehearsals. Because why not immediately capitalize on someone's death, right? Right.
High School Musical director Kenny Ortega had been hired to film Michael during his rehearsals, and is now set to direct what may be a strange feature-documentary hybrid including some of the aforementioned footage, a couple videos, and a new 3D version of the classic Thriller filmed to be shown sort of as an intermission during the London concerts.
AEG, who currently owns the rights to the rehearsal footage is selling Sony the rights to the footage for $50mil which seems like it would be a lot, but a movie featuring the final footage ever shot of Jacko not on a stretcher is going to do tremendous bank. So for their own sake, AEG should negotiate for a percentage on top of the initial fee, otherwise they are going to miss out on quite a lot of profit.
In preparation for an August 29th (Michael's Birthday) tribute concert, AEG is also selling the TV right so some of the footage could be shown along with the star studded performances of Michael's would-be London set list. Among those performing will be his sister Janet, Justin Timberlake, and the band who practiced with him.
Variety has the full story.
Reader Comments (1)
duray-I kind of feel like the same person except more time has gone by.I hate to say that I feel like an adult now. I have to admit I wish I was still 18 , After all , even through the time while I was representing taht wild kid ,I really wasn't.I was just living my life . I was just not making movies at the time.-Leonardo --online replica Longines PrimaLuna