If you’re still following the Michael Jackson show – and really, aren’t we all? – then you’ve probably heard about the rehearsal footage his estate was shopping around shortly after his death.
You’re about to hear a lot more about it.
Sony Pictures has acquired the material- shot in Los Angeles while Jackson was prepping for an epic London engagement – and is now cutting it into a concert movie. This Is It will hit screens October 30, in glorious high-definition … and, apparently, 3D.
I have no idea what that footage looks like. But I’m pretty sure I don’t want to see it.
Celebrity death culture is a ravenous beast, and there’s no limit to the potential for exploitation when someone as famous, and as famously weird, as Michael Jackson. But this is unprecedented. We’re being invited to come and watch his last days, ostensibly in celebration and remembrance of his massive, tragically extinguished talent.
But people aren’t that noble. The real marketing hook is the voyeuristic appeal – the promise of getting a good, long look at your doomed idol just before his death.
Will there be glimpses of physical strain? Shots where the self-proclaimed King of Pop seems frail or unsteady? A soft reminder that Jackson is rehearsing at the Staples Center, the same venue where they’d hold his memorial service?
The last thing, absolutely. That would be melancholy and eerie it’s the kind of thing that sells tickets. The other stuff, not a chance Jackson’s estate has so much invested in the image of Michael as a doomed, noble hero that there’s no way they’ll sanction a project that hints at any flaws or defects in his character. Imagine the folks at Graceland releasing a reel of 16mm footage where a sweaty Elvis nods in the direction of a bathroom there’s just no way, man.
And the title, This Is It? Don’t bet on it. We’re nowhere near the end of the Michael Jackson memorial gravy train.[rssbreak]
