Ashley Hillard
Michael Jackson’s cinematic swansong This Is It is currently packing ‘em in worldwide. We caught up with director Kenny Ortega to see how the project came about, hear about the trust Michael Jackson had for him, and offer him the opportunity to defend the film against the cynics. And you can read the interview here.
Interestingly enough, Ortega – whose other directing credits include TVs “Gilmore Girls†and “Hocus Pocus†– said he and Jackson were about to work on a couple of films, one of them a full-length “Thriller†movie.
“Yeah, we were going to do a couple of films. Before we even knew that we were going to do This Is It, Michael and I were already in the early development stages in talking about doing a Legs Diamond musical and a full length 3-D Thriller motion picture. He wanted to pull the plug on his live performing because he said, ‘I don’t want to be out there doing it when I can’t do it with the integrity that I’m known for. However, let’s make movies and great albums and develop projects together.’ So he was excited about so much. He had so much more in him still.’’
Ortega, who recently walked from Paramount’s “Footloose†remake, says he also has no plans to return to the “High School Musical†franchise.
‘’I’m not going to do High School Musical 4 but I hear that they might be doing an all new cast, all new.’’
