Concert rehearsal footage of the late Michael Jackson may be coming to silver screens nationwide this Halloween, if all works according to Sony's plan. Sony Pictures is aiming for an October 30th release date of the footage from his "This Is It" tour, supported by AEG Entertainment.
In a bidding war that involved Fox, Universal, Paramount and Relativity Studios, Sony came out on top with a winning bid that is reportedly near $60 million. However, for that amount of money, Sony now has 80 hours of footage to work with.
High School Musical 3 director Kenny Ortega is going to helm the project. Ortega also has directing credits for "Michael Jackson's Memorial" and also "Michael Jackson's Memorial Service." Currently, he is also in pre-production for the remake of Footloose.
The Jackson family will earn about 90 percent of what's left after AEG, owner of the footage, earns back the production costs of the tour.
The film is said to involve at least three videos, one of them being a different version of the music video for Michael Jackson's famous "Thriller."
According to Variety, all of this footage was meant to be seen in 3-D, but it is unclear as to whether the final product will play to that request.
Source: Variety