In 1991, Gilles Jacob and the entire Cannes Film Festival jumped into bed with Madonna. Tonight, on the occasion of Cannes' 50th, the festival is looking for Madonna's only major musical rival throughout the 80s, Michael Jackson, to supply the thrills and liven up the audience both inside and outside the Palais. Clear out Spice Girls, Wacko Jacko is back and he is ready to stand in the spotlight as he prepares to launch a new album and video later this month.
Jackson has flown into Cannes - a favourite haunt of his best friend Elizabeth Taylor - from Cleveland, where on Tuesday he made a rare US public appearance when he and his brothers in the Jackson 5 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jackson, who throughout his career has been involved in cutting-edge videos, will be heading up the Palais' famous red carpet at midnight tonight for a screening of his 38-minute short Ghosts, a film starring the singer and based on his song 2 Bad from the album HIStory - Past Present and Future - Book I. Last Halloween, Ghosts premiered for one week in selected theatres in the US alongside Stephen King's Thinner and will receive a nationwide
US release this year before going out internationally.
Stephen King wrote the first screenplay for Ghosts in 1993 but because of the controversy over allegations of sexual misconduct by Jackson, the project was shelved. To get the project back on track, the singer and director Stan Winston, who has been friends with Jackson for over 20 years, reworked the screenplay, centring it on the song 2 Bad. "It started out being 12 to 15 minutes long but as we were shooting it grew in power and length," Winston explains. He promises Cannes that Ghosts will show Jackson as we've never seen him before.
Four-time Academy Award winner Winston, whose innovative character designs can be seen in such films as Jurassic Park, The Terminator, The Relic, The Ghost and the Darkness, Aliens, Edward Scissorhands, Interview With the Vampire, and the upcoming The Lost World: Jurassic Park, directs Jackson in the short, which blends drama and dance with the music while transforming the singer into multiple ghostly characters. "In the simplest description," director Winston says, "it's Michael Jackson's newest Thriller."
Winston, one of Hollywood's premiere creature creators, spent over three months creating the special effects and prosthetics needed for the musical tale of a town in Normal Valley that is trying to oust a loner, The Maestro (Jackson), who likes telling ghost stories to the children. Jackson is in every shot of the film.
On 20 May, Epic Records will release Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory In The Mix, a new 13-track album by Jackson, and a new collection of the artist's short films, entitled HIStory On Film Volume II. The album includes remixes of eight songs from Jackson's multi-platinum album HIStory - Past, Present And Future - Book I, including previously unreleased versions of HIStory, 2 Bad and Money created specifically for the new album.
The mixes of This Time Around, Stranger in Moscow and the UK/ European number one hit single Earth Song have never been available commercially in the US. Among the remixers contributing to these recordings are Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Terry Farleyand Pete Heller, Wyclef Jean and Pras of the Refugee Camp, Todd Terry, David Morales, Hani, Frankie Knuckles, and Tony Moran.
Blood on the Dance Floor also features five new original songs including Ghosts, which was co-written and co-produced by Jackson and Teddy Riley. Ghosts is the soundtrack for the film but has never been issued on album.
The long-form video, HIStory On Film Volume II, is a compilation of Jackson's greatest short films and award-winning television performances, including his Emmy-nominated performance of Billie Jean, from the 1983 NBC special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever; this latter ignited record-breaking sales of John Landis' Thriller, which earned three MTV Video Music Awards in 1984 for Best Overall Performance, Best Choreography, and Viewers Choice. HIStory On Film Volume II also includes Scream (with Janet Jackson), directed by Mark Romanek, which won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Music Video - Short Form and four MTV Video Music Awards; Jackson's acclaimed live performance from the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards; and Blood on the Dance Floor, a new short film directed by Vincent Paterson and Jackson.
Christopher Pickard
Prod co: MJJ Productions
Dir: Stan Winston
Scr: Stan Winston, Mick Garris, Stephen King
Ph: Russel Carpenter
Art dir: Michael Hanan, Jay Vetter
Mus: Nicholas Pike, Michael Jackson
Ed: Marcus Manton
Cast: Michael Jackson, Pat Dade, Amy Smallman
Running time: 38 mins
Int sales: Beta Taurus Film
