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Michael Jackson's Unrealised Film Career

Nickboi

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It was always a dream of Michael's right from early on to transition his career from beyond just that of music, but to also starring in, producing and directing feature films.

Michael was a lifelong fan of the visual arts, as evidenced in his stunning short film music videos, and always aspired and strived to push the envelope of the medium of film.

Yet, despite his aspirations, Michael's movie career was curtailed at multiple times, be it by personal convictions, outside influence, false allegations or dark machinations of Hollywood and sadly and ultimately his untimely death.

Michael therefore only appeared in a handful of motion pictures and his only full true role was that of the Scarecrow in the Wiz. The films that followed were Captain Eo, Moonwalker, Ghosts, Men in Black II and Miss Cast Away and the Island Girls.

I've always been curious about the "what-if" films that Michael might have made or starred in and having read umpteen books on Michael and scoured the web and spoken on-line with a number of parties involved, I have collated the following list of films that Michael was connected with:
  • A Chorus Line
  • Adam at Midnight
  • Angels with Dirty Faces
  • Arabian Nights
  • Batman Forever - the role of the Riddler
  • Capricious Anomaly in the Sea of Space
  • Cats Don’t Dance
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - the role of Willy Wonka
  • Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
  • Edward Scissorhands
  • Frankie and Johnnie
  • Home of the Angels
  • Iron Man - the role of Iron Man/ Tony Stark
  • Isomin Cross & Sons
  • Is This Scary?
  • Jack and the Beanstalk
  • Johnny Appleseed
  • A King Tutankhamun film
  • Labyrinth - the role of Jareth
  • Legs Diamond
  • Men In Black
  • MidKnight
  • Peter Pan
  • Pinocchio 3000
  • Plastic Man
  • Spiderman
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - the role of a Klingon
  • Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace – the role of Jar Jar Binks
  • Street Dandy
  • The Boxcar Children
  • The Crow - the role of Eric Draven/ the Crow.
  • The Dragon’s Candle
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  • The Nightmare of Edgar Allan Poe (aka Poe 2000) - the role of Edgar Allan Poe
  • The Phantom of the Opera - the role of the Phantom
  • The Red Shoes
  • The Seven Faces of Doctor Lao
  • The Thief of Baghdad
  • The Toy
  • The Way of the Unicorn, the Endangered One
  • The Way You Make Me Feel Full Length Movie
  • They Cage Animals At Night
  • Thriller 3D Full Length Movie
  • Twenty-Four Robbers
  • X-Men - the role of Professor X/ Charles Xavier
  • West Side Story
  • Wolfed
I'm currently collating as much information as I can on these projects for a future extended length blog post (or longer format - maybe a book?!).

If you the MJJC can add your insights or add to the list in any way, be it more films to the list, information, plot synopses; concept art, details of other people involved then do discuss below!

I look forward to discussing the same with you and sharing our knowledge on this subject and indeed, discovering more details on these "what could have beens!"
 
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Michael Jackson's film career was also curtailed by touring, according to one of his interviews.

His dream was to have at least six great films under his belt.

The film projects in which he was involved (in one way or another) goes beyond that list.

For example, the singer wanted to direct the 'Home Of The Angels' film (in Canada), with the help of Canadian filmmaker Bryan Michael Stoller.

'Home Of The Angels' was about an unhappy, little orphan boy who was afraid of trusting people.

Michael Jackson in 1987 wanted to play also the Johnny Appleseed lead character.

Johnny Appleseed was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to America by planting apple trees all over America and because of that he became a folk hero.

But Black Workers' League protested against that Michael Jackson's decision because they did not want a black man to play the character of a white man, so the singer had to abandon that idea.

About the 'Peter Pan' film, the Peter Pan character was not about the classical character that Michael Jackson initially thought and he wanted to play.

The Peter Pan character was about to take a different approach, and once American film director Steven Spielberg clarified that to him, the singer acting on Steven Spielberg's advice abandoned that idea, as well.
 
I think one of the big reasons why he wasn't able to purse movies more was becasue of the Victory Tour and the pepsi accident. Had those things not happened I'm sure he would have starred in a movie before the Bad album.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
I think one of the big reasons why he wasn't able to purse movies more was becasue of the Victory Tour and the pepsi accident. Had those things not happened I'm sure he would have starred in a movie before the Bad album.
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Oh yes I completely agree that the Pepsi accident and the Jackson brothers/ family wanting to tour curtailed the pre Bad movie plans.

A Peter Pan project for 1984/85 was definitely mooted and talked about in the press, with Spielberg to direct and this project was more akin to J M Barrie’s source novel then what came later with Hook. Touring and the accident and then latterly Spielberg deciding not to pursue the project at that time due to the birth of son Max ended the Pan project.
 
mj_frenzy said:
Michael Jackson's film career was also curtailed by touring, according to one of his interviews.

His dream was to have at least six great films under his belt.

The film projects in which he was involved (in one way or another) goes beyond that list.

For example, the singer wanted to direct the 'Home Of The Angels' film (in Canada), with the help of Canadian filmmaker Bryan Michael Stoller.

'Home Of The Angels' was about an unhappy, little orphan boy who was afraid of trusting people.

Michael Jackson in 1987 wanted to play also the Johnny Appleseed lead character.

Johnny Appleseed was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to America by planting apple trees all over America and because of that he became a folk hero.

But Black Workers' League protested against that Michael Jackson's decision because they did not want a black man to play the character of a white man, so the singer had to abandon that idea.

About the 'Peter Pan' film, the Peter Pan character was not about the classical character that Michael Jackson initially thought and he wanted to play.

The Peter Pan character was about to take a different approach, and once American film director Steven Spielberg clarified that to him, the singer acting on Steven Spielberg's advice abandoned that idea, as well.
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I was not aware of the Johnny Appleseed or Home of the Angels projects so thank you for these!

What are your sources of information for these two projects?
 
Nickboi said:
I was not aware of the Johnny Appleseed or Home of the Angels projects so thank you for these!

What are your sources of information for these two projects?
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The information for the lead role of Johnny Appleseed comes from Adrian Grant's book 'Michael Jackson, A Visual Documentary' (Adrian Grant states in his book what was reported about that in the press in August 1987).

The information for 'Home Of The Angels' comes from a 2001 article in The Guardian.
 
This is a repost of what has already been posted in the forums, but the song "Best of Joy" was originally created in 1981 titled as "The Toy" for Richard Donner's film The Toy, but was never included in the film because the Thriller sessions took priority.
 
the 'peter pan' movie was supposed to happen in '83. 'thriller' is what took place of it. michael told 'jet' magazine in december of '84 right after the 'victory' tour, that he chose not to do it because he didn't want to be type-casted. he reasoned that he already played the scarecrow, and that he would end up playing pinocchio if he took the role. his mother katherine also backed these claims in her 1991 memoirs 'my family, the jacksons'. she noted that michael's image became more 'street' after 'beat it', and that the movie was no longer appropriate for him. most of the biographies that were released in '83 prior to the 'thriller' film, discuss the upcoming 'peter pan' movie. that was due to be his next career move. i personally think it's a shame it never happened, but i'm thankful for 'thriller'. 💜
 
To me Mike, Madonna, & Prince are like Elvis Presley. People generally watch Elvis movies because it's Elvis, not for the plot or who he's playing. 😅
 
AChanceToDance said:
This is a repost of what has already been posted in the forums, but the song "Best of Joy" was originally created in 1981 titled as "The Toy" for Richard Donner's film The Toy, but was never included in the film because the Thriller sessions took priority.
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Amazing! What is the source of this information?
 
Nickboi said:
Amazing! What is the source of this information?
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It's from a 1984 deposition for a plagiarism lawsuit over The Girl Is Mine, it comes from a JET magazine article:

"Jackson named other songs he had written that he feels are “just as strong or stronger than the stuff that was on the Thriller album", including “The Toy". Quincy wanted me to write a song for the Richard Pryor movie, The Toy, and it got too close to my doing Thriller. So I canned it, but I did write the song and I did a demo of "The Toy"

Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=5..."the+girl+is+mine"&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q&f=true page 57, paragraph 3. (Thanks to user AlwaysThere for sharing and finding this 😁)
 
DuranDuran said:
To me Mike, Madonna, & Prince are like Elvis Presley. People generally watch Elvis movies because it's Elvis, not for the plot or who he's playing. 😅
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Yes, definitely. Let’s be honest here, most of Elvis’ movies are not great, albeit enjoyable, and that is because of his iconic status as Elvis Presley, not because he wasn’t a good actor. He wasn’t taken seriously as an actor because people couldn’t separate the man from the image he was portraying.

The same thing would have happened with Michael, in my opinion. People wouldn’t have taken any movie starring him seriously, not after Thriller at least, because he was already this quite unique person who was already a character in and of himself. So, it would have been hard not to see Michael Jackson the artist, when watching a movie starring him.

This idea that he could have also had a successful movie career while being the biggest and most successful artist in the world is simply a fantasy, in my opinion. He could have been a good director, probably. But I can’t imagine him being a serious actor.
 
dethorro said:
This idea that he could have also had a successful movie career while being the biggest and most successful artist in the world is simply a fantasy, in my opinion. He could have been a good director, probably. But I can’t imagine him being a serious actor.
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Especially in 2000s, he could have branched out into direction. He was always so creative and original. He could have made great movies or documentaries. Unfortunately life came in the way :(
 
filmandmusic said:
Any info on “ the way you make me feel” full length movie? @Nickboi

I want to hear the toy
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Joe Pytka who directed Michael in The Way You Make Me Feel discussed with him about remaking West Side Story.

When the original rights holders declined, Joe and MJ discussed turning The Way into a full length project but by this time MJ was developing MidKnight.

Source - https://pytka.com/thief-of-bagdad/
 
Honestly, I've always thought that Michael would've done an amazing job as the lead in The Greatest Showman. I just feel like that movie would've been right up his alley.
 
dethorro said:
Yes, definitely. Let’s be honest here, most of Elvis’ movies are not great, albeit enjoyable, and that is because of his iconic status as Elvis Presley, not because he wasn’t a good actor. He wasn’t taken seriously as an actor because people couldn’t separate the man from the image he was portraying.

The same thing would have happened with Michael, in my opinion. People wouldn’t have taken any movie starring him seriously, not after Thriller at least, because he was already this quite unique person who was already a character in and of himself. So, it would have been hard not to see Michael Jackson the artist, when watching a movie starring him.

This idea that he could have also had a successful movie career while being the biggest and most successful artist in the world is simply a fantasy, in my opinion. He could have been a good director, probably. But I can’t imagine him being a serious actor.
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Although she didn't do a lot of acting, Janet was taken seriously to some extent. Probably because she got her start acting on Good Times before she made a record, or maybe the variety show before it had a little acting in skits. The Wiz is a musical, and singing & dancing is what Michael was already known for and he wasn't carrying the movie. He wasn't a box office draw, but I think David Bowie was accepted as an actor, since his different images was sort of acting anyway like Ziggy Stardust. Also Bowie didn't really do quicky "pop star" movies like Elvis did or A Hard Days Night & Purple Rain which were kinda the artists playing themselves. A Hard Days Night/Help! were made to make money from teenage Beatles fans like those Frankie Avalon beach movies.
 
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