The film offers Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place beginning this past summer in London’s O2 Arena. Covering the months from March through June, 2009, the film is produced with the full support of the Estate of Michael Jackson and drawn from more than 100 hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing numerous songs for the show. Audiences will be given a privileged and private look at Jackson as he has never been seen before. In raw and candid detail, Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT is the last documentation of Michael Jackson in action, capturing the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect, creative genius, and great artist at work as he and his collaborators move toward their goals of London, the O2, and history.
Columbia Pictures presents in association with The Michael Jackson Company and AEG Live a film by Kenny Ortega, Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT. Directed by Kenny Ortega. Produced by Randy Phillips, Kenny Ortega, and Paul Gongaware. John Branca and John McClain are Executive Producers. The companion album will be released by Sony Music Entertainment’s Columbia/Epic Label Group.
Michael Jackson’s THIS IS IT has been rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for some suggestive choreography and scary images. The film is playing now in theatres worldwide.
FOREWORD BY DAVID WILD*
This Is It.
In just three words, Michael Jackson managed to say it all.
Right there in one willfully dramatic phrase, Jackson somehow promised everything — a grand farewell, a new beginning and a thrilling return to form that would offer a sense of completion if not finality. It was a phrase that meant many things to Jackson: it would be not just a curtain call, but a call to arms, a call for more love in the world.
This Is It.
In his own distinctive and idiosyncratic way, Michael Jackson had always been an instinctively great communicator. He was, after all, such a singularly brilliant vocalist that he could magically lend universal meaning even to those curiously expressive mystery syllables that the rest of us could never even define. Now with just three simple words, Jackson managed to communicate so much yet again. That’s the same thing Michael Jackson had done time and time again for decades as he gave soulful voice to some of the most beloved and familiar songs ever to be recorded — both the ones that he wrote and the ones that he made his own forever just by the act of singing them.
Then in the wake of Michael Jackson’s sudden and tragic death at the age of only 50 on June 25, 2009, the meaning of this strangely powerful phrase changed in one terrible instant that reverberated all around the world. This Is It suddenly seemed destined to become the sadly empty promise of a truly global happening that could never happen due to one horrible and historic twist of fate. For Michael Jackson’s children, family and closest associates, they had lost a father, a brother, a son, and a friend. For the rest of us, we lost a cultural icon, a popular legend, and even a King.
For the millions of us everywhere who had been moved by the music Michael Jackson made during his fifty years — and by the massive artistic legacy that he left behind — the irony of the timing made his passing feel even more terrible. After all, we all had come so close — and yet so far — to seeing exactly where it was that Michael Jackson intended to take us next. Jackson was that rare performing artist capable of transporting himself — and all of us — with amazing grace. But with his sudden death, it appeare
