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With millions at stake, Sony is on a bizarre campaign to stomp out negative publicity for This Is It, Michael Jackson's final performance. Jacob Bernstein goes behind the veil.
On Wednesday, Sony will release the Michael Jackson pseudo-documentary, This Is It, a movie that purports to show “a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer” as he put together the concert series that was to take place this past summer at London’s O2 Arena. The folks at the studio are proceeding with a tremendous amount of caution.
They’re denying writers the opportunity to attend advance screenings, quickly changing the topic when the folks at the Today show ask thorny questions about whether the film exploits Jackson’s death, and doing everything they can to minimize the damage Jackson’s antics caused to his reputation while he was alive.
As one Hollywood source put it when asked whether the studio has a PR problem on its hands: “I wish I had their problem... It’s practically an insurance policy.”
The stakes are high. The studio spent a reported $60 million acquiring the worldwide rights to the concert’s rehearsal footage. Moreover, Sony is—in addition to being the movie’s distributor—Jackson’s record label. That means that the same people putting out the film are the ones who own a 50 percent stake in Jackson’s song catalogue. If the movie successfully creates the impression that the person who had the greatest downfall in popular culture history was on the verge of a massive comeback, it could have an enormous impact on his music sales for years to come. Consequently, everything they’re doing with the marketing campaign is about minimizing Jackson’s reputation as a possible child molester and drug addict, and reviving the sense that he was the unassailable “King of Pop.”
Already there have been indications not everyone is anticipating the film with open arms. A group called This Is Not It has popped up on the Internet. They say concert organizers exploited Jackson and should be called to the carpet for pressuring him to continue with a show that he was physically unfit to perform. TMZ, which has been at the forefront of Jackson coverage since breaking the news of his death, was carping last week that Katherine Jackson, Michael’s mother, had not received tickets to the premiere (she eventually did), along with the allegation from his father, Joe, that the movie “is mostly body doubles.”
And addiction specialists are blanching about the fact that the movie reportedly avoids dealing with the complex reality of Jackson’s drug addiction. Said Marty Brenner, a Los Angeles-based drug-dependency counselor: “it doesn’t show the real life of the human being and what actually happened.”
A backlash is, perhaps, inevitable. But don’t bet on one that actually affects the movie’s box office.
Privately, just about every Hollywood marketing expert admits that the most likely scenario is that the studio will ride Jackson’s death all the way to the bank and that the film will be a smashing success, in part because there is no greater draw at the box office than a giant star appearing—for the last time ever!—in a film that showcases him at his best. As one Hollywood source put it when asked whether the studio has a PR problem on its hands, “I wish I had their problem. It’s a recently departed star, it’s the core of the sell, and it’s practically an insurance policy. We’ve seen this with Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, and we’ve seen it with Brandon Lee in the Crow movie.”
Actually, the tradition of dead stars doing well at the box office goes back way further than that. In 1937, the blond bombshell Jean Harlow died of renal failure at the age of 26, while filming Saratoga with Clark Gable. At first, MGM considered re-shooting the film with Virginia Bruce or Jean Arthur, but fans complained and so they used Paula Winslowe to supply voice, and Mary Dees as a lookalike for additional scenes. The film went on to become a box-office bonanza, and served as a pretty good indicator that audiences see nothing distasteful about a studio trying to make a lot of dough off a dead celebrity (particularly if the material’s good).
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
This movie is not supposed to be a documentary on his life, for that watch Martin Bashir's interview.
It is a concert movie and hopefully a chance for his audience to see him as the great performer he once was.
For Michael Jackson, this really is it.
I hope you saw This Is It! Bashir's mischievously edited "documentary" is not particularly credible, though. I think the very act of bringing up the allegations that were disproved in court serves, perhaps inadvertently, to protect and provide cover for the same team of people involved in both cases, people who were engaging in extortion.
"They say concert organizers exploited Jackson and should be called to the carpet for pressuring him to continue with a show that he was physically unfit to perform."
Very true. The world will always provide opportunities that if taken are to our detriment and MJ is the one who made the decisions.
My bet is there will be documentaries and books on the other side of the sad story. They all have some truth, if anyone shows a balanced take is yet to be known.
Creative people are complicated like that. We will never know.
the people who continue to purport Jackson as a "possible child molester" are of the same ilk as those who purport Obama as a "possible Muslim." Do your research and stop chastising a dead man. An innocent dead man.
He is gone, but the possible victims are still here to be affected by the speculation.
Not sure what you've read that convinces you he was innocent. How the children were able to pinpoint verified birthmarks on his privates? Jackson settled the case immediately after the police took photos of him to verify their description. Did something you read refute this?
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/michaeljackson/010605jacksonsplotch.html
Idiot, what a spurious association.
Michael was unmistakenly still an innocent little boy @ heart, but sadly NOBAMA IS A MUSLIM !!
Can't wait till that ****** is gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are an idiot. A crazy conspiracy theorist who would believe the planet has been invaded by aliens if the republicans said it.
This film will be a very sad postscript to a very tragic life. Michael Jackson was so below the top of his game when this was filmed - I saw the excerpts. It was heartbreakingly sad to see him go through the motions without any genuine feeling. It was like watching a robot running out of its charge.
People will go to this movie out of curiousity - just how messed up was he? Very.
Michael Jackson looked like he was in his element and was actually enjoying what he was doing, in the excerpts I saw. This will be a great concert experience as we pay tribute to a wonderful human being, that gave us so much of himself, that there was not much of him left when he stared into that mirror at night. He was taken too soon from all of us and he is being missed daily, may he rest peacefully.
I saw this tribute last night. I can't say enough about how awesome MJ looked, and he never stopped moving - dancing with all of the dancers to all of the rehearsals shown. I have been a big MJ fan since he was 8 years old, I am 65 and no one will ever convince me that he EVER hurt one single hair of any child. This man was in the public eye every day of his life. Life in a fishbowl - how many of us could live like that. I miss him every day and just hope that Sony decides to put This is It on DVD because I will be first in line to buy it. The only part I hate about that is that his greedy family will be the ones who benefit. RIP Michael, I love you and miss you.
A Hollywood-produced film "doesn't show the real life" of someone?? Oh my God, that's breaking news!! But wait, it doesn't matter because The Daily Beast makes money hating on bad things rather than promoting good things. The article just helped contribute to the film's controversy and will make more people go see it "to decide for themselves".....
Michael Jackson's Sony contract expired in 2004. The Jackson family seems to want Sony to continue, even though Michael Jackson at one time called their accounting practices "devilish". Why could not Sony release the actual concert, straight through, instead of this "making-of" idea, when that aspect could have been culled together as a 2nd film maybe? And we have to ask again, why no actual soundtrack album? The public gets another greatest hits disc and disc two is 4 a capella demo tracks, in the "companion" album.It's a chintzy greatest hits collection (14 tracks) compared to the other 3 out there (4, if you count the 1st disc of HIStory, which is a 15-track greatest hits compilation).
the jackson family didn't agree to this understand it's the executors that are doing business for the estate that's why katherine is still having to fight for a seat at the table john branca and john mcclain are the one's making the deals and branca works for sony/ i'd also like to say michaeal was found not guilty on not one but sixteen felonies on child molestation and just because this site and people want to keep saying he was a child molester it doesn't make it true
Well Loonesta I would say that the reason for no actual concert straight through was probably because he died before ever getting to perform the show. I am not meaning to cause offence or getting snotty with you in any way. It's just people are getting all bent out of shape about this movie. It is only rehersal footage so yes he is not singing to his fullest. In the movie he even explains to the limited audience that he needs to save his voice. Fair enough I say. I would guess that is also the reason why the soundtrack isn't released. I am sure there will be plenty more records coming out of the MJ vaults in time. After seeing this movie I was left with a sadness over the fact that he never got to perform this for any of the 50 shows he had sold out in London.It certainly looked like it would be the show to end all shows. In my humble opinon.
I don't know why you and others are carping and complaining about the film's failure to cover the traumatic aspects of MJ's life. This flick is solely about the mega star and his prowess as a consummate entertainer: it was never intended (and shouldn't be expected) to be a documentary about his personal life or his last days. Surely others are hard at work trying to piece together celluloid projects about MJ, the person, to be released at later dates to satisfy those who hanker for infotainment. So sit back, let this show begin and enjoy it for what it is - pure entertainment.
This writer has clearly not done any research about Michael Jackson or those surrounding him. For instance, he critiques the choreographer for not knowing about Jackson's financial state or being oblivious to the economic plans for film proceeds. This is an oblique critique given that choreographers are not accountants. And then this writer talks about exploitation of Jackson by Sony and then goes on to quote Katherine and Joseph Jackson, the epitomy of those who exploit.
I am sorry, but this article was bent on critiquing sorry because this writer didn't get free tickets to the event. This film was made for the fans of Micahael Jackson and that some people don't want to see the film, that others have createda website against the film, is their right. But this writer fails to discuss the film in any constructive way and most appallingly he is totally unaware that Jackson was known for not giving it is "all" in rehearsals, commonly blocking moves instead of full out dancing.
Daily Beast, please get better writers!
disfasia, well said!!
AMEN
Like everyone else, MJ was a multi-faceted human being. He had good thoughts and deeds, and other thoughts and deeds that in hindsight could have been handled better (in no way making any reference to any child molestation allegations).
All of us exhibit the full spectrum of human emotions throughout our lives and they are momentary and fleeting, yet we hope to learn the lessons within.
I laugh at the naivete of so many whenthey fully realize everything is about money, bottom line and profits these days.
Of little interst gere, is to accurately portray the life of a superstar talent who also dealt with addiction, sexual, chemical or otherwise and the usual human frailties.
So much of the talking heads and buzz abounds and that exists as nothing more than a spin machine hopefully whipping up ratings, newsstand sales and profits.
Every situation on life presents us with an opportunity to learn, on the positive, and sometimes on the negative illuminating the consequences of bad choices. I wonder why this opportunity to discuss drug addiction, sex and 21st century life through the prism of this popular American icon will be lost on the current generation of young people.
rather, we have a vehicle designed to insure the continued profitability of Sony, Inc. and it's investment in the Michael Jackson catalogue of work. Focusing on the bottom line of this big business is top priority amongst the CEO set, and nary is there even a nod to the abundance of attention anything Michael Jackson did, including being an example of what can happen when one gets involved with drugs and loses sense of the real values of life. The movie has nothing within to illustrate without preaching , any message based on the many tragedies Michael faced in his later life.
So, kids, get out of the way of the rich man who is trying to make money. And don't forget to buy your tickets and a cd on the way out!!!
Daily Beast, I sure hope you're not actually paying this hack writer, Jacob Bernstein, who obviously hasn't done his homework regarding the life and work of Michael Jackson, but instead regurgitates the same ol' putrid pile of crap that medialoid (mainstream media infected by tabloid journalism) force fed to the public for the 4 decades that Michael Jackson has been in the public eye. It's disgusting.
Thank you.
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