Michael Jackson was preparing to make his debut as a filmmaker after signing up to co-direct and finance a drama about foster children just three months before his death, according to a new report.
The pop superstar passed away on June 25, days before he was due to return to the stage with a 50-date live spectacular in London.
But he was also planning to move into Hollywood as a director, claims producer/filmmaker pal Bryan Michael Stoller.
Stoller alleges that Jackson had agreed to be his partner in the film company Magic Shadows and they were preparing to co-direct They Cage the Animals at Night, a project they had been working on for the last seven years.
Stoller claims the movie, based on a 1985 autobiography by author Jennings Michael Burch, was the brainchild of Jackson, who wanted to highlight the plight of foster kids because he felt he could relate to their circumstances.
He says, “Michael told me often he felt like he grew up as an orphan, like a foster kid, because he never was in one home. To him every hotel was like a different foster home. He said he used to sit in the window and see kids playing outside and cry because he couldn’t be part of that.”
But Jackson had no plans to step in front of the camera again, following his acting turn in The Wiz in 1978.
Stoller adds, “He was very excited about making movies and wanted his hands on everything, from working on screenplays to producing, to writing the music. However, he never showed any interest in acting.”
Stoller videotaped a series of meetings between Jackson and Burch and he now hopes to turn the collection of footage into a documentary to shed light on the singer’s life behind the walls of his Neverland Ranch, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
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