Sony Pledging $50 Million+ For Michael Jackson Rehearsal Footage?
· Sony may soon have a new entry to add to its holiday 2009 movie calendar, having emerged as the likely buyer of 80 hours' worth of Michael Jackson rehearsal footage from his concert promoters at AEG. Bidding reportedly began at $50 million -- roughly $10,000 per minute -- and climbed from there, with director Kenny Ortega already assembling scenes from Jackson's final comeback preparations last month. Among them: Three interstitial videos that would have broken up the London performances, including "an alternative version" of Thriller. Next up for AEG: Offloading TV and video rights for the MJ tribute/birthday concert on Aug. 29. (Sorry! Darryl Phinnessee sold separately.) [DHD, BFDealMemo]
Voltron returns, Mischa Barton takes another week off, and more Hollywood Ink after the jump.
· Hoping to capitalize on the momentum of Transformers, a group of producers have latched onto the other '80s-era, shape-shifting robot property Voltron. As one principal noted, "unlike other robotic action movies, Voltron is the personification of the human spirit, a quality that will set this movie apart." You know -- educated ethnic robots, more tastefully depicted robot testicles... that sort of thing. [THR]
· The producers of Mischa Barton's primetime comeback The Beautiful Life have come up with a great new euphemism for "our star is institutionalized and we're pushing production back a week": The sets aren't ready. Punchy! [THR]
· Leonardo DiCaprio will co-produce a new, feature-length Twilight Zone adaptation for Warner Bros. Rand Ravich will contribute the screenplay, which I presume won't call for the use of helicopters. [Variety]
· TLC has ordered six episodes of One Big Happy Family, which will follow the lives of a 340-pound man, his 400-pound wife, and their 330 and 340-pound teenage children. [THR]
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Comments
1. $50 million seems to be an awful lot for what's essentially a ghoulish curiosity.
2. In this version Voltron is a hip-hop talking illiterate robot with testes that look like two Death Stars stuck to his crotch.
3. I'm not going to mock someone in that situation. The producers, could try honesty, and support in place of pretty thin spin-doctoring.
4. I thought DiCaprio was already doing a Twilight Zone episode and calling it Shutter Island.
5. When will TLC finally give up the facade, and change their name to the Human Oddities & Disease Porn Channel?
Can we get Darryl Phinnessee some more work in Hollywood?
I got it, how about if he hosts a cooking/chat show called Talk, Salad, and Scrambled Eggs.
I dont understand all these,50 million USD?
The cumulative weight from the members of One Big Happy Family will give you the Roman numerals MCDX, which coincidentally, would've made a much better title than One Big Happy Family.