There was bound to be a rush of people cashing in on the King Of Pop’s demise, and the latest to announce plans is AEG Live, the company that was behind Jackson’s ‘This Is It’ concerts at the O2 Arena, which were, of course, cancelled after the star’s death. They say over 100 hours of rehearsal footage was shot, and that this could be edited into a film release.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, AEG is pitching it as a way to help the Jackson estate pay off its estimated $400 million worth of debt. Randy Phillips, President and CEO of AEG Live said, “He was our partner in life and now he’s our partner in death. If we all do our jobs right, we could probably raise hundreds of millions of dollars just on the stuff we have worldwide and then the estate could eradicate its debt.”
However there’s little doubt the company will also be looking to recoup some of its own losses. It’s believed the company had already spent $30 million on the O2 concert series, although some of the blow will already have been softened by the fact that an estimated 40-50% of ticket holders have opted to hang onto the tickets as a souvenir, rather than getting a refund. In fact, AEG could end up making more money out of Jackson now that he’s died than they would have if he’d actually gone ahead with the concerts. This is especially true if it turns out his death was an accident rather than from natural causes, as in that case they also get a large insurance payout.
It’s been rumoured that the proposed rehearsal footage movie may be a DVD only release, probably due to the fact that the camera used to catch the footage wasn’t of cinema quality.AEG is also said to be considering a star-filled tribute show at the O2, which would be broadcast worldwide and then released onto DVD.
The news comes at the same time as footage has been released of Jackson rehearsing for the concerts just two days before he died. Take a look below to see the footage (if you’re on the Main News page, click Read More to see the video).