This is the poster for This is It, the movie made from footage of Michael Jackson’s rehearsals for the concert tour he never did, which will play for two weeks starting October 28th.  I admit it’s kind of a cool poster, if you can ignore the whole blatantly-capitalizing-on-the-man’s-death, from-the-director-of-High-School-Musical aspect of it.  It also promises Michael Jackson “like you’ve never seen him before.”  Now, I know that’s a cliché and thus easy for stupid people to type, but… really?  Michael Jackson?  Dude’s had three cameras on him practically since birth.  You promise MJ “like we’ve never seen him before” and you better have footage of him drinking a 40 on the sh’tter.

Look for tickets wherever Slim Jims are sold.

[via Yahoo]

Vince reported last month that Sony paid $50 million for 80 hours of Michael Jackson’s rehearsal footage.  According to Rolling Stone:

The Michael Jackson estate and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that This Is It, a film comprised of rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage of Jackson preparing for his 50-concert run at London’s O2 Arena, will be released in movie theaters on October 30th.

[...] the deal with Sony was contingent on multiple factors. First, the film is required to be no longer than 150 minutes and must secure a PG rating. [Ed. - I wouldn't go to a 150-minute PG movie if they were giving out free blow jobs and oxycontin.]  Also, the film can in no way show Jackson in a negative light [Ed. - *dismissive wank motion / dick helicoptor combo move*], and a final cut must be presented to the Jackson estate by October 2nd.

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(Jacko as I’ll always remember him: singing along to R.Kelly in the backseat of Brett Ratner’s car)

Sony is paying $50 million dollars for 80 hours of Michael Jackson’s rehearsal footage, filmed while he prepared for his concert series in London.

The film will feature at least three videos, including an alternative version of Jackson’s “Thriller,” which were shot to be interstitial programming during the London concerts. The footage was meant to play in 3-D, but it’s unclear as yet whether the feature film will present it that way.

“High School Musical” director Kenny Ortega, who shot the rehearsal footage, is expected to direct the feature, and sources said he’s already beginning to put together the footage so Sony can release the film before year’s end.

Several studios were impressed when shown the footage by AEG last week. Fox, Universal, Paramount and Relativity likely would have met AEG’s asking price but knew that Sony Pictures had clear first position because sibling company Sony Music Entertainment owns music publishing rights to Jackson’s songs. [variety]

$50 million? Not even the biggest Michael Jackson fan alive would say the stuff he recorded when he was 50 years old and killing himself with drugs was his best work (clearly, the stuff he made when he was 11 and getting kicked in the nuts by his father was his best work).  I imagine this was a decision that seemed like a good idea at the height of Jacko-death fever, but will wind up somewhere between Crystal Pepsi and giving Michael Phelps a book deal on the bad idea scale.

On Friday I reported that Universal had cut a scene from Brüno featuring LaToya Jackson a few hours before the Brüno premiere in LA.  At the time it was unclear whether the scene would make it into the theatrical version.  They’ve since confirmed that it won’t be.

The studio confirmed the scene would be out of the theatrical version of the movie, and said removing it won’t be expensive because the prints have not yet been made or shipped.

Sacha Baron Cohen interviews an unsuspecting LaToya Jackson about a number of topics, including her brother. Among the gags is a joke about the King of Pop’s high-pitched voice, as well as a reference to his trademark white glove, all done in Baron Cohen’s characteristically absurdist tone. [THR]

Oh no, not his voice or his glove!  Too far, you guys. That’s the Ronald Reagan of pop you’re talking about.  Lot of people think you can make fun of dead people, but really, that’s the best time to make fun of them.  For one they can’t chase you and for another you can dress them in silly outfits.  Haha, why you hittin yourself, Billy Mays?

It’s great that Fred Durst became a movie director.  Not because his movies are any good or because I’ve seen any of them, but because now I can make fun of him and it’s movie related.  As you might imagine, Durst recently took to Twitter to express his sadness at the passing of Michael Jackson, and he did it as only Fred Durst can:

“On this tour I have been paying tribute to MJ by wearing his beat it jacket and rhinestone glove. The irony and timing is shocking. I am very sad. He was truly brilliant and the reason why I love to dance.”

I don’t know about you, but I imagined him covered in sweat, doing the Roger Rabbit at his cousin’s Bar Mitzvah when he sent that.  But wait, there’s more!

“There are only four phenomenons [sic] to truly impact our lives in popular music- Frank Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson. They will all live forever within me.”

Hmm, I’m not sure whether to make fun of him for having seven guys inside him or because he thinks he’s going to live forever.  Maybe he’s a gay vampire.  Later on, Durst answered a question about whether he and Michael Jackson had ever met:

“I did. Twice. Spent several hrs hanging and talking. Another time went to ceasars palace w him, my friend Ron, and Chris Tucker to virgin megastore [so was it Caesar's Palace or Virgin Megastore?  Jeez you're an idiot. -Ed.]. It was madness. Great memories.”

Are Fred Durst and Brett Ratner the same person?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in the same place at the same time.  “It’s a sad day.  He was just really a source of influential to me when I was writing ‘Chocolate Starfish and the Hot-Dog Flavored Water.’”

[and don't forget to vote for #5, the only Fred-Durst-related definition of Durst on UrbanDictionary. Thanks to Jacktion! for that]