This is it, or is it?
10 November 09

This Is It, the Michael Jackson documentary, opened in London on the 27th of October. Unusually, the film was shown at 1am for specially invited guests and 4am for the general public.

Sony choreographed the opening night of the film so that it was being shown around the globe at the same time. LA premiered the film at the more respectable hour of 6pm, while in Seoul the film was shown at 10am. This made the opening a cinematic event, rather than just another film's first weekend.

Distilled from 120 hours of rehearsal footage, the content was supposed to be for Jackson's personal library, according to the opening sequence. This has led to numerous campaigns against the film, including thisisnotit.com. Mimi Flynn, UK spokesperson for one of said campaigns, claims that the film's producers tried to put a gloss on the end of Jackson's life. This claim has been denied by Columbia Pictures representatives. Flynn goes on to say that Jackson himself was a perfectionist and as such would hate rehearsal footage being shown. Despite some negative comments and concerns, however, the film made $2.4 million its opening night in the US and has since topped the worldwide box office.

This Is It is 115 minutes long and directed by Dirty Dancing choreographer Kenny Ortega.


Source: guardian.co.uk/music/