Historic - once you watch the film, you'll have to tell us the stories that were in the book that did not make the movie.. I know of 1 so far! the arguing homeless people one.
So I've been watching it casually as I browse the internet and stuff and I'm about to finish in a few minutes. I entered with low expectations, expecting a trashy TV movie and to be honest, it's alright for a TV movie. It's watchable but I doubt I'll watch it again, I'll take the book any day. Acting wise I like the actor for Bill, Navi is alright at times and looks wise was a pretty good looking MJ in the right get up... but he needs to be much more consistent with the acting. Also when he screamed "THIS IS IT" at the TII announcement, he sounded a bit like a South Park character? Hahaha. I also can't really stand him singing either.
I wish that he wasn't treated so much as a damsel in distress. I can accept him being someone who is reliant on others by this point in his life and he of course had his demons and so forth, but I dunno. At times it felt exaggerated to a degree, but I guess that's to be expected given that's typical of narratives like this.
So like I said, I haven't read the book since 2014 but a few things I remember that haven't made the film:
- As discussed, the alarm is triggered (by Blanket) and the guards come rushing into the kitchen during breakfast time, locked and loaded. Other members here make it sound like it was shot but didn't make the final cut.
- That arguing homeless one you mentioned, KOPV. I very vaguely remember it so I can't say much more.
- At times, the guards would notice Michael Jackson frequently checking the doors and windows to ensure they were locked properly, he was very paranoid.
- Michael sometimes went down to his studio in the wee hours of the morning. Would come out hours later.
- Wearing the motorbike helmet. It's only briefly brought up in the film, but in the book it's described that Michael walked down the whole boulevard without being noticed. I feel that should've been expanded on a lot more. Also, I think the motorcycle helmet they had a black 'slider' on the front (the proper word isn't coming to me right now). The one in the film is see-through, which is weird because if we can see it's Michael Jackson, you'd think everyone up close could... especially the impersonator who would know Michael Jackson's face inside and out.
- There's a scene I recall where Michael Jackson was in a car, and someone yelled out that he was a child molester. He gets upset and yells to Bill that he is not a child molester. There was a similar scene portrayed not long ago in the film, he's with a date and gets out of the car with her, a guy deliberately bumps into Michael and yells "FREAK!" causing him to retreat inside.
- There's a scene in the book where Michael and the kids go in the hot air balloon, which is operated by a husband and wife team. This was not long after the first iPhone came out and the operator onboard sneaked a photo of Blanket, Michael noticed and got his guards to deal with it.
I'm not worried for most of these as I understand that you can't bring EVERYTHING from a book into a film, but some people asked so these are things I remember that didn't make it.
