Michael Jackson’s Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, and the music video for its title track was a 14 minute minimovie directed by John Landis and even features an appearance by horror film veteran Vincent Price.
Deadline is reporting that production company GK Films is actively negotiating for a rights package with Fox 2000, Mandate/Lionsgate, and Summit Entertainment that would allow development to begin on a feature film version of Jackson’s classic music video THRILLER.
Now just as when he was alive, Michael Jackson’s property is being sold, unfortunately it took his passing to make everyone realize just how much they enjoy the eccentric star (despite some public antics) thereby making everything he was involved in that much more valuable.
And seeing a behind the scenes look at Jackson in This is It revealed him to be an approachable and down to earth performer with an amazing work ethic – a side we didn’t often get exposed to.
In the Thriller video, Jackson and his date are running from hordes of Zombies before Jackson himself turns into one himself leaving his date helpless to watch the choreography that ensues.
Turning this into a feature film is a bit exploitative when you consider that the Zombie genre is not exactly new ground. This could be ANY zombie movie as the video was made to pay homage to that very genre.
Kenny Ortega, who directed This Is It (and High School Musical) is responsible for the big seat and co-writing the screenplay with Jeremy Garelick. These guys are being given a modest $50million to make the movie based on what we saw in the video.
