Looks like the world has missed one helluva concert. Whatever cynicism one might harbor about this Hail Mary piece of cinema -- which can be called the first 音乐会 rehearsal movie ever -- it's a strange yet strangely beguiling film that captures one of pop culture's great entertainers in the feverish grips of pure creativity. The screen is filled with performers, musicians, choreographers, crew members and craftsmen, but the movie's laserlike focus is on Michael Jackson. 你 understand what it takes to attain such dizzying heights in entertainment, and perhaps why he chose to stay away for a decade.
Following its simultaneous premieres Tuesday, the film will open on 更多 than 3,400 domestic screens along with 96 in Imax theaters and another 27 internationally for a two-week run. That run will be extended if demand is there. Demand will be there.
In case someone just dropped in from Mars, "This Is It" was to be 50-year-old Jackson's comeback, a planned run of 50 sold-out concerts that were to take place at London's O2 Arena over the summer, all of which came to a sudden and tragic end with the performer's death June 25.
Kenny Ortega, the director of the stage show, has put together this movie from 120 hours of digital-video footage -- for which Sony reportedly paid $60 million -- taken during rehearsals at Staples Center in Los Angeles between March and June of this 年 along with casting sessions at the Nokia Theatre and video sequences filmed on the Sony lot.
What strikes 你 is how thoroughly professional, even slick, the footage is. Whatever it was intended for -- a making-of doc to accompany the 音乐会 DVD 或者 a 电视 show? -- this is no footage rounded up from the crew's cell phones. Interviews with the cast, musicians and production personnel further underscore a clear intent to go public with this material.
Whatever the case, how fascinating it is to watch a huge, complicated 音乐会 take shape. Make no mistake, this was a 显示 intended for a stadium with a dazzling, mixed-media staging. One can even imagine a 音乐 critic in 伦敦 fuming about overproduced numbers that don't trust Jackson's great song catalog to deliver the goods.
On the other hand, this production might have been just right in scale for the O2 Arena. Dancers pop up through trap doors in elevators operating at "toaster speed." A bulldozer rumbles onstage for a "green" number about saving rain forests.
Shooting in front of a Sony greenscreen, 11 male dancers are transformed into 11 million. Jackson gets mixed into old, black-and-white movie footage so he can admire Rita Hayworth's wiggle in front of an orchestra and dance around bullets shot 由 Edward Robinson and Humphrey Bogart.
分裂, 拆分 screens convey Jackson, nearly always in sunglasses, performing the same number in different days with different wardrobes and different approaches. There's no 问题 who the director is here. Jackson is in complete control. Ortega watches over the production while Jackson manages every moment onstage. His directions are almost poetic. About the tempo of one number, he instructs, "It's like you're dragging yourself out of bed." Another time, he says, "It has to simmer."
The audience at the Nokia premiere didn't seem to know how to react to rehearsal footage. They giggled nervously at missed cues and interruptions. To be clear: No one should expect a 音乐会 film. Jackson clearly is conserving his energy, holding back on dance moves and vocal intensity. He is searching for his concert, the way a sculptor chisels away at marble to discover a statue.
Interestingly, two of his best songs, "Billie Jean" and "Man in the Mirror," look like they were going to be staged simply. Then again, perhaps Ortega is 展示 early footage before the addition of dancers and singers. There's no way to tell.
The frustration -- beyond the greater one, that a tragedy prevented this 音乐会 from happening -- is not knowing what you're looking at. Where are Jackson and his conspirators at any 给 moment in the creative process? The film tries to be a 音乐会 film without having the actual footage. So when everything comes to a halt, audiences get thrown.
"This Is It" is not a "sacred document," as Ortega asserted to the Nokia crowd. But it is a fascinating one. It shows a songwriter-performer who knows his material intimately. Although not always certain what he wants, he knows it immediately when he gets it. At one point, Ortega asks his 星, 星级 how he will see a certain cue onstage. Jackson pauses and then says, "I'll feel that."
And 你 know he would have.
Following its simultaneous premieres Tuesday, the film will open on 更多 than 3,400 domestic screens along with 96 in Imax theaters and another 27 internationally for a two-week run. That run will be extended if demand is there. Demand will be there.
In case someone just dropped in from Mars, "This Is It" was to be 50-year-old Jackson's comeback, a planned run of 50 sold-out concerts that were to take place at London's O2 Arena over the summer, all of which came to a sudden and tragic end with the performer's death June 25.
Kenny Ortega, the director of the stage show, has put together this movie from 120 hours of digital-video footage -- for which Sony reportedly paid $60 million -- taken during rehearsals at Staples Center in Los Angeles between March and June of this 年 along with casting sessions at the Nokia Theatre and video sequences filmed on the Sony lot.
What strikes 你 is how thoroughly professional, even slick, the footage is. Whatever it was intended for -- a making-of doc to accompany the 音乐会 DVD 或者 a 电视 show? -- this is no footage rounded up from the crew's cell phones. Interviews with the cast, musicians and production personnel further underscore a clear intent to go public with this material.
Whatever the case, how fascinating it is to watch a huge, complicated 音乐会 take shape. Make no mistake, this was a 显示 intended for a stadium with a dazzling, mixed-media staging. One can even imagine a 音乐 critic in 伦敦 fuming about overproduced numbers that don't trust Jackson's great song catalog to deliver the goods.
On the other hand, this production might have been just right in scale for the O2 Arena. Dancers pop up through trap doors in elevators operating at "toaster speed." A bulldozer rumbles onstage for a "green" number about saving rain forests.
Shooting in front of a Sony greenscreen, 11 male dancers are transformed into 11 million. Jackson gets mixed into old, black-and-white movie footage so he can admire Rita Hayworth's wiggle in front of an orchestra and dance around bullets shot 由 Edward Robinson and Humphrey Bogart.
分裂, 拆分 screens convey Jackson, nearly always in sunglasses, performing the same number in different days with different wardrobes and different approaches. There's no 问题 who the director is here. Jackson is in complete control. Ortega watches over the production while Jackson manages every moment onstage. His directions are almost poetic. About the tempo of one number, he instructs, "It's like you're dragging yourself out of bed." Another time, he says, "It has to simmer."
The audience at the Nokia premiere didn't seem to know how to react to rehearsal footage. They giggled nervously at missed cues and interruptions. To be clear: No one should expect a 音乐会 film. Jackson clearly is conserving his energy, holding back on dance moves and vocal intensity. He is searching for his concert, the way a sculptor chisels away at marble to discover a statue.
Interestingly, two of his best songs, "Billie Jean" and "Man in the Mirror," look like they were going to be staged simply. Then again, perhaps Ortega is 展示 early footage before the addition of dancers and singers. There's no way to tell.
The frustration -- beyond the greater one, that a tragedy prevented this 音乐会 from happening -- is not knowing what you're looking at. Where are Jackson and his conspirators at any 给 moment in the creative process? The film tries to be a 音乐会 film without having the actual footage. So when everything comes to a halt, audiences get thrown.
"This Is It" is not a "sacred document," as Ortega asserted to the Nokia crowd. But it is a fascinating one. It shows a songwriter-performer who knows his material intimately. Although not always certain what he wants, he knows it immediately when he gets it. At one point, Ortega asks his 星, 星级 how he will see a certain cue onstage. Jackson pauses and then says, "I'll feel that."
And 你 know he would have.
With the two-year anniversary of Michael Jackson's death approaching -- one helicopter company is giving 粉丝 the chance to pay their respects ... 由 raining 花 down around Neverland ... mid-flight.
The 30-minute Channel Island Helicopter flights are set to take off June 24th and 25th -- exactly two years since Jackson died after a Propofol-induced cardiac arrest.
During the flight, passengers are encouraged to honor the late entertainer 由 chucking his 最喜爱的 花 -- a red rose -- out of the helicopter mid-flight ... over nearby Zaca Peak.
A rep for the helicopter company tell us -- 粉丝 are super excited for the aerial tour ... saying they feel it will bring them "closer to heaven" ... and closer to Michael.
The 30-minute Channel Island Helicopter flights are set to take off June 24th and 25th -- exactly two years since Jackson died after a Propofol-induced cardiac arrest.
During the flight, passengers are encouraged to honor the late entertainer 由 chucking his 最喜爱的 花 -- a red rose -- out of the helicopter mid-flight ... over nearby Zaca Peak.
A rep for the helicopter company tell us -- 粉丝 are super excited for the aerial tour ... saying they feel it will bring them "closer to heaven" ... and closer to Michael.
Ryan White, symbol of justice
或者 child of innocence, messenger of love
Where are 你 now, where have 你 gone?
Ryan White, I miss your sunny days
We carelessly frolicked in extended plays
I miss you, Ryan White
I miss your smile, innocent and bright
I miss your glory, I miss your light
Ryan White, symbol of contradiction
Child of Irony, 或者 child of fiction?
I think of your shattered life
Of your struggle, of your strife
While ladies dance in the moonlit night
Champage parties on charted cruises
I see your wasted form, your ghostly sight
I feel your festering wounds, your battered bruises
Ryan White, symbol of agony and pain
Of ignorant fear gone insane
In a hysterical society
With free-floating anxiety
And feigned piety
I miss you, Ryan White
你 showed us how to stand and fight
In the rain 你 were the cloudburst joy
The sparkle of hope in every girl and boy
In the depths of your anguished sorrow
Was the dream of another tomorrow
Back to poem site
或者 child of innocence, messenger of love
Where are 你 now, where have 你 gone?
Ryan White, I miss your sunny days
We carelessly frolicked in extended plays
I miss you, Ryan White
I miss your smile, innocent and bright
I miss your glory, I miss your light
Ryan White, symbol of contradiction
Child of Irony, 或者 child of fiction?
I think of your shattered life
Of your struggle, of your strife
While ladies dance in the moonlit night
Champage parties on charted cruises
I see your wasted form, your ghostly sight
I feel your festering wounds, your battered bruises
Ryan White, symbol of agony and pain
Of ignorant fear gone insane
In a hysterical society
With free-floating anxiety
And feigned piety
I miss you, Ryan White
你 showed us how to stand and fight
In the rain 你 were the cloudburst joy
The sparkle of hope in every girl and boy
In the depths of your anguished sorrow
Was the dream of another tomorrow
Back to poem site
Michael Jackson 粉丝 are scrambling to stop the Discovery Channel from broadcasting a gruesome reenactment of MJ's autopsy ... calling the whole thing an "affront to human dignity."
TMZ has learned ... 粉丝 have already collected nearly 1,500 signatures -- all demanding the network pull the plug on a special entitled "Michael Jackson's Autopsy" ... in which MJ's bloody autopsy is expected to be reenacted in gory detail.
The 粉丝 behind the petition call the documentary "an affront to human dignity" -- adding, "This type of sensational and unscrupulous reporting can only cause harm."
The petition states, “We ask the directors of the Discovery Channel programming to proceed with the outright cancellation of this indecent documentary.”
The doc is scheduled to air January 13th in the UK.
TMZ has learned ... 粉丝 have already collected nearly 1,500 signatures -- all demanding the network pull the plug on a special entitled "Michael Jackson's Autopsy" ... in which MJ's bloody autopsy is expected to be reenacted in gory detail.
The 粉丝 behind the petition call the documentary "an affront to human dignity" -- adding, "This type of sensational and unscrupulous reporting can only cause harm."
The petition states, “We ask the directors of the Discovery Channel programming to proceed with the outright cancellation of this indecent documentary.”
The doc is scheduled to air January 13th in the UK.