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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/514069.stm
Pop superstar Michael Jackson is about to play hard-drinking writer Edgar Allan Poe in a big-budget independent thriller, according to a report in a US newspaper.
Industry journal The Hollywood Reporter claims the 41-year-old will take the title role in The Nightmare of Edgar Allan Poe, which will start shooting in Montreal late next year.
It said the singer "has been looking a long time for the ideal story in which to take his first starring role".
His only movie appearance before now was in 1978 as a supporting actor in The Wiz, which starred Diana Ross.
Jackson will also be an executive producer on the project with Gary L Pudney and Jim Green. It will be funded with cash from France, Germany and Canada.
Poe, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, died aged 40 in 1849 after a life of misery and madness, and an obsessive fascination with the supernatural.
He was best known for his poems, short tales and literary criticism.
The Fall of the House of Usher, written in 1839, was to become one of his most famous stories, while 1841's The Murders in the Rue Morgue is sometimes considered to be the first detective story.
Other stories include The Tell-Tale Heart. while The Raven is one of his acclaimed poems.
Poe has never before been the subject of a major movie biography, though a 20th Century Fox film called The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe was made in 1942, and the writer was a character in a 1951 MGM mystery called The Man with a Cloak.
Writer Philip Levin, who came up with the idea for The Nightmare of Edgar Allen Poe, is said to be writing the screenplay, which will cover the week before Poe's death.
The exact cause of Poe's death, in Baltimore, remains a mystery. Five days earlier, he had been found semi-conscious and delirious: a victim of alcohol, heart failure, epilepsy - or a combination of these.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20396305_84806,00.html
A $30 million feature about the last week of Edgar Allan Poe's life starring eccentric pop idol Michael Jackson as the eccentric literary idol? ''They're the same age, their builds are very similar, and there's a similar mystique,'' says producer Jim Green. ''Michael likes to explore the dark side, and certainly Poe had a lot of dark things in his nature.''
Green and partner Gary Pudney pitched ''The Nightmares of Edgar Allan Poe'' to Jackson when the singer told them he plans to stop touring after his next album and concentrate on movies. Green hopes to get rolling as soon as the script is done. The film is being financed with European money and has no U.S. deal yet. ''Michael's popularity in this country has been on the wane,'' concedes Green. ''I'm counting on this album to bring him back on top.''
Could be interesting if we could have Q and A with the guys who planned the project.
Pop superstar Michael Jackson is about to play hard-drinking writer Edgar Allan Poe in a big-budget independent thriller, according to a report in a US newspaper.
Industry journal The Hollywood Reporter claims the 41-year-old will take the title role in The Nightmare of Edgar Allan Poe, which will start shooting in Montreal late next year.
It said the singer "has been looking a long time for the ideal story in which to take his first starring role".
His only movie appearance before now was in 1978 as a supporting actor in The Wiz, which starred Diana Ross.
Jackson will also be an executive producer on the project with Gary L Pudney and Jim Green. It will be funded with cash from France, Germany and Canada.
Poe, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, died aged 40 in 1849 after a life of misery and madness, and an obsessive fascination with the supernatural.
He was best known for his poems, short tales and literary criticism.
The Fall of the House of Usher, written in 1839, was to become one of his most famous stories, while 1841's The Murders in the Rue Morgue is sometimes considered to be the first detective story.
Other stories include The Tell-Tale Heart. while The Raven is one of his acclaimed poems.
Poe has never before been the subject of a major movie biography, though a 20th Century Fox film called The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe was made in 1942, and the writer was a character in a 1951 MGM mystery called The Man with a Cloak.
Writer Philip Levin, who came up with the idea for The Nightmare of Edgar Allen Poe, is said to be writing the screenplay, which will cover the week before Poe's death.
The exact cause of Poe's death, in Baltimore, remains a mystery. Five days earlier, he had been found semi-conscious and delirious: a victim of alcohol, heart failure, epilepsy - or a combination of these.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20396305_84806,00.html
A $30 million feature about the last week of Edgar Allan Poe's life starring eccentric pop idol Michael Jackson as the eccentric literary idol? ''They're the same age, their builds are very similar, and there's a similar mystique,'' says producer Jim Green. ''Michael likes to explore the dark side, and certainly Poe had a lot of dark things in his nature.''
Green and partner Gary Pudney pitched ''The Nightmares of Edgar Allan Poe'' to Jackson when the singer told them he plans to stop touring after his next album and concentrate on movies. Green hopes to get rolling as soon as the script is done. The film is being financed with European money and has no U.S. deal yet. ''Michael's popularity in this country has been on the wane,'' concedes Green. ''I'm counting on this album to bring him back on top.''
Could be interesting if we could have Q and A with the guys who planned the project.