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《娱乐周刊》抢先观看了全新杰克逊电影
——他最后演出的内幕故事和捕捉他最后时光的影片
纽约消息——本周的娱乐周刊会发布迈克尔杰克逊的最后演出的内幕故事和人生最后时光的影片。6月份他猝死的消息震惊了全世界，现在，杰克逊回到了舞台和荧屏上。这要多亏这些公布出的罕见镜头、他信任的导演和他可敬的歌迷们复活的力量。
杰克逊想用在伦敦O2体育馆的50场演出呈现给他的歌迷终极迈克尔杰克逊演唱会体验，用业界最高水平的宏伟场面开创新时代。就像它的名字所说的：“就是这样。”杰克逊已经50岁了却在近10年里都没有表演过，当他在洛杉矶的斯台普斯中心排练时，有时他的同事担心他把自己逼得太紧了：他吃得很少，休息得也很少。“别担心，”杰克逊告诉肯尼奥特加导演。“只要能把人们吸引到台前就好，他们就是我的能量，他们就是我的食物。他们的爱会让我去睡觉的。”
6月25日，所有的准备几乎都已齐全，但MJ的突然离世惊呆了制作方。看起来杰克逊对“就是这样”的雄心——重振事业、加强年轻歌迷群基础、补救财政、传达爱与和平的信息和呼吁环保的心愿永远无法实现了。但在排练的那四个月，摄像机不停运转，记录下了这位歌手和他的团队筹备演出的全过程。虽说其中的一些只被考虑做之后的演唱会电影的潜在后台资料，但这意味着它们永不会被公之于众。突然间它们成为了这位历史上最棒的艺人工作时的最后资料。现在，经过了几个月的筹备，在10月28日“就是这样”全球首映时，全世界终于有机会看看这些镜头。
演唱会和“就是这样”电影的双料导演肯尼奥特加是杰克逊最亲密的伙伴之一，他说道:“过去的几年里，迈克尔一直在说‘让我们找点事做’，但他回绝了很多邀约。他推掉了一个在拉斯维加斯驻唱的邀请。他说‘这必须非常重大，我们不能只是做我们能做的。’我之前从未听他这样说过。这次，他因一些更深层次、更成熟的原因想要做这个。”
杰克逊演唱会的消息伴随着兴奋与怀疑。很多人推测杰克逊只是需要钱，但演唱会的宣传方AEG公司主席兰迪菲利普斯说，这不仅因为金钱。“新闻发布会后我问他，‘为什么是现在？’他说‘因为我花费了12年半的时间把孩子们带大，现在他们已经长大到可以欣赏我做的事情了，而我也还年轻得可以做这些。’是的，他是要理清财务，但金钱并不是首要动力。”
随着制作步入正规，杰克逊的野心很快显现出来，他为演唱会的创作超越他之前做过的一切。当预算已经超过两千四百万美元时，杰克逊告诉他的团队他想要在舞台上建一个全世界最大的瀑布。“我已经准备好从办公室的阳台上跳下去了”菲利普斯说，“我们去找迈克尔，肯尼说：‘迈克尔，你得停下了。我们已经做出无以伦比的演出了，我们不需要更多装饰了。’迈克尔说：‘但是肯尼，上帝晚上将这传达给我，我睡不着因为我被他控制着。’肯尼说：‘但是迈克尔，我们得把它完成，上帝就不能有个假期吗？’毫无停顿的，迈克尔说：‘你不明白，如果我不在那接收他的这些想法，上帝可能就会把他们给普林斯（译注：MJ一直以来的竞争对手，艺人普林斯，不是MJ的儿子）。’”
外界很多人士怀疑杰克逊的体力是否能承受50场演出这样疲惫的任务。当他的同事们看到那些世界最棒的年轻舞者也得努力去跟上他的舞步时，他们放心了。杰克逊仍然看起来超乎平常的瘦。“我常拿给他布斯特饮料（译注：Boost drinks是英国的一个能量饮料品牌）和正餐替代品，”编舞师切维斯佩恩说，“我们都鼓励他尽量多吃一点，但同时我也明白：若你吃的太多之后再跳舞的话，对身体不好。所以我认为，这都是为了艺术。”我们能做的去影响迈克尔的事情只有这些，奥特加说：“他被爱着并被关心着，我告诉他我为他担心。但我们不是他的护士。我们是他的创意团队。他的生活掌握在他自己手里。他会为自己做主。”
杰克逊曾坚持要留下他的全天候私人医生康奈德莫里。莫里的薪水包含在演出预算里，由此来监督他的药物需求。莫里医生现在是误杀调查的焦点。“迈克尔很信任这个医生，”菲利普斯说。“我真的曾试图劝他解雇他。我不想一个月花15万美金雇一个医生，因为我们的演出在伦敦进行，那里有很棒的医药资源。这是第一次我与迈克尔之间有了冲突，他告诫我说他需要一个一周24小时候诊的医生，像巴拉克奥巴马的那样，因为他的身体是整个演出的能源，迈克尔的想法优先。回头看看，我想我们知道原因。”
在编辑小组把镜头精简到3个半小时并且菲利普斯接洽了杰克逊财产执行人后，大家一致同意将它们进一步做成电影。奥特加被聘请为导演。4个主要工作室的主管能够看到15分钟的镜头，在这之后一场竞标大战爆发并持续了一个多礼拜。
最终，索尼赢得了拍卖，以6000万美元的价格取得了电影的出版权。在这之后，制作电影的任务开始，谁也不想浪费一秒钟。“一开始他们想在8月29日迈克尔的生日那天让电影首映。”奥特加：“我说‘不可能。’第二天他们回来找我并说道：‘我们给你时间，万圣节时搞定。’这个时间的确够了。万圣节是迈克尔最喜欢的节日。”
有些人质疑严格的杰克逊本人对把他创作过程这些私密的镜头呈现在观众面前的做法是否会满意。奥特加相信杰克逊会祝福“就是这样”电影的：“我了解迈克尔，并且我知道他为什么要做‘就是这样’演出。只要这个电影是基于那些原因——让他的孩子看到他生命中所爱之物、回馈和他同甘共苦的忠诚歌迷们、传递他对地球环境的忧虑——为什么迈克尔会不高兴呢？他并不想阻止这个项目，这是意外事件。”
杰克逊的最后彩排就在他死前的10小时结束。经历了那些日子的人说，离伦敦首演开锣之夜就剩不到3周的时间了，那晚杰克逊离开时感觉又自信又充满力量“我们在12点半左右走向我们的车，”菲利普斯说：“他用胳膊挎着我，并用他那种细小、明快的声音对我说，‘谢谢你带我走了这么远，现在我能从这接手了。我知道我能做到。’我想这是他第一次发自肺腑地接受他能回归的事情了，并且他知道他能再次辉煌。”
作者：Parisongs 来源：MJJCN
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Highlights from ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY's October 23, 2009 issue
(on newsstands nationwide Friday, October 16):
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY HAS THE FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW MICHAEL JACKSON MOVIE
PLUS: THE INSIDE STORY OF HIS FINAL PERFORMANCES AND THE FILM THAT CAPTURES HIS LAST DAYS
NEW YORK - This week's Entertainment Weekly has the inside story on Michael Jackson's final performances and the film that captures his last days. His tragic death last June shook the world, and now Jackson is returning to the stage - and the screen - thanks to some revealing raw footage, a director he trusted, and the resurrecting power of his adoring fans.
With a 50-show engagement set for London's 02 arena, Jackson wanted to give his fans the ultimate Michael Jackson concert experience, a career-capping spectacle to end all spectacles. It was right there in the name: "This Is It." But at age 50, Jackson hadn't performed on stage in more than a decade, and as he rehearsed the show at L.A.'s Staples Center, his collaborators sometimes worried that he was pushing himself too hard: not eating enough, not getting enough rest. "Don't worry," Jackson told director Kenny Ortega. "Just put the people all crushed up against the stage. They're my fuel. They're my food. Their love will get me to the end."
On June 25 the pieces were nearly all in place when Jackson's sudden death brought the production to a stunned halt. It seemed Jackson's ambitions for This Is It - to reinvigorate his career, rejuvenate his fan base, replenish his finances, and spread messages of peace, love, and ecological responsibility - would never be realized. But cameras had been rolling during those four months of rehearsals, recording the singer as he and his team developed the show. Though some of it was considered potential backstage material for a later concert movie, it was never meant to be seen by the public. Suddenly it became the last existing documentation of one of history's greatest entertainers at work. Now, after months of anticipation, the world will finally get a chance to see that footage when This Is It opens around the globe on Oct. 28.
Kenny Ortega, the director of both the concert and now the film This is It was one of Jackson's closest collaborators. "Over the last few years, Michael would say, 'Let's find something to do,'" Ortega says.
"But he turned down a lot. He turned down an invitation to do a Vegas production. He said, 'It has to be important. We can't do something just because we can.' I'd never heard him talk like that before. This time around, he wanted to do it for deeper reasons, more mature reasons."
The announcement of Jackson's London concerts was greeted with both excitement and skepticism. Many speculated that Jackson simply needed the money, but Randy Phillips, president of the concert promotion firm
AEG Live, says there was more to it. "After the press conference, I asked him, 'Why now?' He said, 'Because I've spent 12-and-a-half years bringing my kids up, and now they're old enough to appreciate what I do - and I'm still young enough to do it.' Yes, he had to clean up his finances. But money was not the primary motivating factor."
As the production got under way, it quickly became clear that Jackson's creative ambitions for the concert were beyond anything he'd ever attempted. With the budget already past $24 million, Jackson told his team he wanted to recreate one of the world's largest waterfalls on the stage. "I was ready to jump off the balcony of my office," Phillips
says. "We went and met with Michael, and Kenny said, 'Michael, you've got to stop. We've got an incredible show, we don't need any more vignettes.' Michael said, 'But Kenny, God channels this through me at night. I can't sleep because I'm so super-charged.' Kenny said, 'But Michael, we have to finish. Can't God take a vacation?' Without missing a beat, Michael said, 'You don't understand - if I'm not there to receive these ideas, God might give them to Prince.'"
Many outsiders wondered whether Jackson could pull off the physically grueling task of mounting 50 concerts. His collaborators were reassured as they watched some of the world's best young dancers struggle to match his moves. Still, Jackson did look awfully thin. "I was always handing him Boost drinks and meal-replacement things," says choreographer Travis Payne. "We all encouraged him to eat as much as he could. But at the same time, I understand: When you eat a lot and then you dance, it hurts. It was all for his art, I think." There was only so much anyone could do to influence Jackson, says Ortega: "He was loved and considered. I told him I worried about him. But we weren't there as his nurses. We were his creative team. He was in charge of his life. He was his own man."
Jackson had insisted on retaining a full-time private physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, who was paid through the show's budget to oversee his medical needs. Dr. Murray is now the focus of a manslaughter investigation. "Michael was very confident in the doctor," Phillips says. "I actually tried to talk him out of hiring him. I didn't want to spend $150,000 a month on a doctor, since we were playing in London, which has phenomenal medical resources. It was the first time Michael and I had cross words with each other. He admonished me that he needed a doctor 24/7, the same way Barack Obama did, because his body is what fuels this whole business. Michael prevailed on that. And I guess, looking back, we know why."
After a team of editors distilled the footage to three-and-a-half hours, and Phillips - in conjunction with the executors of Jackson's estate - agreed to go ahead with a movie. Ortega was asked to direct. The heads of four major studios were able to see fifteen minutes of footage, and after that a bidding war erupted that lasted more than a week.
Ultimately, Sony won the auction, paying $60 million for the right to release the film. And after that point, the task of crafting a movie began, and no one wanted to waste a moment. "At first they wanted to get the film out by Michael's birthday, August 29," Ortega says. "I said, 'No way.' They came back to me the next day and said, 'We'll give you Halloween' - which was actually okay. Halloween was Michael's favorite holiday."
Some wonder if the fiercely private Jackson would be comfortable with audiences getting such an intimate look inside his creative process. Ortega is confident Jackson would give This Is It his blessing: "I know Michael, and I know why he wanted to do This Is It. As long as the film is based on those reasons - letting his children see what he loved in his life, giving something back to the fans who were so loyal to him through thick and thin, sharing his concern about the health of our planet - why wouldn't Michael be happy? He didn't intend not to finish this project. It was an accident."
Jackson's last rehearsal wrapped just ten hours before his death. Those who were there that day say that, with less than three weeks left to go until opening night in London, Jackson left that night feeling confident and strong. "We were walking to our cars at about 12:30," Phillips says. "He put his arms around me, and, in that little, lilting voice of his, he said, 'Thank you for getting me this far. Now I can take it from here. I know I can do this.' I think it was the first time that, in his heart and soul, he accepted that he could come back, and that he could be great again." (Page 20)
Source: Entertainment Weekly / MJ data bank |
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