A SORT-OF SNEAK PEEK
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Jacko's This Is It Is...What?
It's not a concert film—but King of Pop 'very much alive' for 111 minutes
By Evann Gastaldo
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Posted Oct 26, 09 12:35 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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This Is It opens this week, but most, if not all, fans still have no idea what to expect of the Michael Jackson film, which has not been aired for critics. It’s not a concert film, says director Kenny Ortega, who also choreographed Jackson’s ill-fated London shows, but fans will get “wall-to-wall music. You see Michael onstage rehearsing many of the songs that would've appeared in the concert,” he tells USA Today. “But there's no one there watching except for a handful of dancers. And 18,000 empty seats.”
Ortega calls the film, which was pieced together from promo interviews, rehearsal tapes, and behind-the-scenes footage, “a musical mosaic,” adding that Jackson is “very much alive in the context of this film. And there's great joy in visiting with him in that 111 minutes. But at the end of it all, there is tragedy here. And that film isn't going to make that go away.”