Highlights from ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY's October 23, 2009 issue
(on newsstands nationwide Friday, October 16):
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY HAS THE FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW MICHAEL JACKSON MOVIE
PLUS: THE INSIDE STORY OF HIS FINAL PERFORMANCES AND THE FILM THAT CAPTURES HIS LAST DAYS
NEW YORK - This week's Entertainment Weekly has the inside story on Michael Jackson's final performances and the film that captures his last days. His tragic death last June shook the world, and now Jackson is returning to the stage - and the screen - thanks to some revealing raw footage, a director he trusted, and the resurrecting power of his adoring fans.
With a 50-show engagement set for London's 02 arena, Jackson wanted to give his fans the ultimate Michael Jackson concert experience, a career-capping spectacle to end all spectacles. It was right there in the name: "This Is It." But at age 50, Jackson hadn't performed on stage in more than a decade, and as he rehearsed the show at L.A.'s Staples Center, his collaborators sometimes worried that he was pushing himself too hard: not eating enough, not getting enough rest. "Don't worry," Jackson told director Kenny Ortega. "Just put the people all crushed up against the stage. They're my fuel. They're my food. Their love will get me to the end."
On June 25 the pieces were nearly all in place when Jackson's sudden death brought the production to a stunned halt. It seemed Jackson's ambitions for This Is It - to reinvigorate his career, rejuvenate his fan base, replenish his finances, and spread messages of peace, love, and ecological responsibility - would never be realized. But cameras had been rolling during those four months of rehearsals, recording the singer as he and his team developed the show. Though some of it was considered potential backstage material for a later concert movie, it was never meant to be seen by the public. Suddenly it became the last existing documentation of one of history's greatest entertainers at work. Now, after months of anticipation, the world will finally get a chance to see that footage when This Is It opens around the globe on Oct. 28.
Kenny Ortega, the director of both the concert and now the film This is It was one of Jackson's closest collaborators. "Over the last few years, Michael would say, 'Let's find something to do,'" Ortega says.
"But he turned down a lot. He turned down an invitation to do a Vegas production. He said, 'It has to be important. We can't do something just because we can.' I'd never heard him talk like that before. This time around, he wanted to do it for deeper reasons, more mature reasons."
The announcement of Jackson's London concerts was greeted with both excitement and skepticism. Many speculated that Jackson simply needed the money, but Randy Phillips, president of the concert promotion firm
AEG Live, says there was more to it. "After the press conference, I asked him, 'Why now?' He said, 'Because I've spent 12-and-a-half years bringing my kids up, and now they're old enough to appreciate what I do - and I'm still young enough to do it.' Yes, he had to clean up his finances. But money was not the primary motivating factor."
more here:
http://www.mjdatabank.com/english_version/news/2009/october/20091015_ew_tti.htm
