Michael Jackson even began shooting the 'Smile' music video.
He plays the Charlie Chaplin's Tramp character (with the appropriate disguise and pantomime).
But two obstacles arose:
It has been written that the Charlie Chaplin Estate did not want the Tramp character to be given another interpretation.
Also, he reportedly wanted a budget of two million dollars for making the music video, but Sony refused to spend such a lot of money in that music video for fear of not recouping the money later from sales of the single.
So, the singer had to cancel that particular plan (although some promo singles had already been released).