'Gone Too Soon' will include video and audio recordings of the King of Pop, as well as interviews with his manager and others.
By Gil Kaufman
Michael Jackson
Photo: Dave Benett/ Getty Images
Michael Jackson biographer Ian Halperin, who last year released a chronicle of the King of Pop's gradual late-period decline titled, "Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson," is prepping an accompanying documentary, due out this summer.
According to
Variety, Halperin is finishing work on an 88-minute documentary titled "Gone Too Soon" that makes use of the more than 300 hours of footage he shot inside the pop icon's camp. The film is slated to be unveiled at next month's MIPTV conference in Cannes, France, and is set for a theater run in Canada and France on June 25, the one-year anniversary of Jackson's death. There is no word yet on a U.S. release.
"Unmasked" is based on five years of investigative reporting by Halperin, who told MTV News last year that he started out with the intention of finding proof that the repeated allegations of child molestation lodged against the eccentric pop singer were true, but ended up believing that Jackson was a victim of his own success and predatory opportunists. Jackson was acquitted of child molestation and other charges in 2005 and settled with an alleged victim in 1993.
Film footage reportedly includes video and audio recordings of the reclusive Jackson, as well as interviews with the singer's manager, chef, spiritual adviser, hairstylist, trainer, protective agent and attorney. None of the other members of Jackson's family are involved in the movie, though Halperin said they are aware of it.
Though it depicts some of the more controversial chapters in Jackson's life, Halperin described the movie as "a balanced tribute to the King of Pop ... This is the film Michael and his fans deserve."
Halperin is credited with breaking the news in December 2008 that Jackson was in ill health and predicting that the singer would be dead within six months. The performance documentary "Michael Jackson's This Is It," which featured footage of Jackson's final rehearsals for a planned comeback series of concerts in London, was released last fall and
shattered box-office records for a music film.
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Michael Jackson Biographer Releasing Movie About Pop Star's Final Days
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