Studios Competing For Michael Jackson Concert Film; Bidding Began At $50M

[GreenScar]

EXCLUSIVE: AEG is right now trying to auction off to Hollywood that concert film of the Michael Jackson rehearsals for his final tour. I'm told Sony, Universal and Fox are in negotiations, but the price keeps going up and up. $50 million is where it started, I heard. As soon as executives involved in organizing Michael Jackson's 50-night schedule of shows at London's O2 arena learned of the performers death, they met at Staples Center in Los Angeles and secured all of the rehearsal footage which Jackson had done there, according to news reports. Randy Phillips, president and CEO of AEG Live, ghoulishly boasted to The Associated Press he had "more than 100 hours of footage that could be turned into live albums, a movie and a pay-per-view special. He was our partner in life and now he's our partner in death." Phillips claimed the production budget for the shows reached $25 million, which also covered 3-D "mini-movies" of Thriller and Earth Song. He also said that, aside from AEG, the Jackson estate would get the "lion's share" of any profits from the high-def footage. (Photos of MJ's last rehearsals.)

The recordings were reportedly "great," with the last day on Wednesday being the "best," and all of them "enough for a show," NBC News reported at the time. The includes production meetings and auditions and behind-the-scenes showing Jackson and his dancers occupying several spaces in the Staples Center, and Michael going from room to room supervising the rehearsals. The Los Angeles Times and the AP also reported that the singer liked how the concert was developing.