As most Michael Jackson fans know, MJ always wanted to make movies. Now sadly, in an ironic twist of fate, ‘This is It’ has become the hit movie that he never managed to make while he was alive.

Jackson’s most prominent big-screen role was as the Scarecrow in 1978’s ‘The Wiz,’ but he continued to explore his love of film with projects like the 14-minute “Thriller” video, ‘Captain EO,’ and ’Ghosts.’ There were also brief cameos in sci-fi films ‘Men in Black II’ and ‘Miss Castaway.’ In an interview for EW’s recent cover story, ‘This Is It’ director, Kenny Ortega revealed that Jackson continued to harbor cinematic ambitions right up to the end of his life.

He told me he wanted to create a partnership with me to do films. We were talking about doing Legs Diamond. And we were talking about doing a full-length, 3-D feature of ‘Thriller.’ ”

Co-chairman of Sony Pictures, Amy Pascal, says that over the years she and Jackson had discussed a number of film projects that never came to be. The biggest of these unmade projects was a musical fantasy film called ‘Midknight’ that Jackson wanted to make with Batman production designer Anton Furst. Unfortunately that project  fell apart when Furst committed suicide in 1991. Pascal says,

“A million years ago, when I worked with [then-Columbia Pictures president] Dawn Steel, she and I tried to convince Michael to do a remake of ‘The Red Shoes.’

The Red Shoes is a classic 1948 British musical drama, based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, about a ballet dancer whose compulsion to dance ultimately destroys any hope she once had of a normal life, leading to the dancer’s tragic death. The project never happened. Pascal says,

“Michael’s life became The Red Shoes, I’m afraid.”

Source: mjfanclub.net

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