We’ve reported before about rumours that a movie version of the rehearsal footage for Michael Jackson’s This Is It London concerts might be turned into a film, and that plan has now taken a massive step forward with Sony close to paying about $50 million for the rights to distribute the film worldwide. It’s a sensible tie-up as while Fox, Universal, Paramount and Relativity wanted the rights to the footage, which is owned by AEG Entertainment, the music publishing rights to Jackson’s tunes are owned by Sony’s music arm.
There is apparently more than 80 hours of rehearsal footage and the film will largely be based around three videos that were shot to be played during the This Is It concerts, including an alternate version of Jackson’s Thriller video. They were filmed to be displayed in 3D, although it’s not known yet whether they’ll be seen that way in the finished film.
High School Musical director Kenny Ortega, who is also a renowned choreographer and was working with Jackson on the concert, shot the videos, and he’s currently working on cutting them together with the rehearsal footage to make a complete movie.
The current plan is to get everything put together as quickly as possible, so that the film can debut in cinemas later this year. AEG are also looking to sell the TV and video rights to an August 29th tribute concert in London, on what would have been Jackson’s 51st birthday, where Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson and others will perform the songs Michael had been due to sing during the This Is It concerts.