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“MidKnight”
Date of report confirmed in “Los Angeles Times” (archived) (“November 14, 1991”)
“Los Angeles Times” (November 14, 1991) (archived)
Sony Pictures Entertainment is keeping a heavy wrap over the Michael Jackson movie project, "MidKnight." Is it the story of a meek young man by day, who secretly changes into a heroic singing and dancing knight at the stroke of midnight?
A Sony executive declined to comment.
But he did say that the storyline based on Jackson's idea would encompass elements of action and, of course, music. And that it will be presented in "different" ways not before seen on the screen.
Based on Jackson's unspectacular track record with film acting ("The Wiz" and in Disneyland's "Captain EO") some doubt his ability to carry a full-length feature film of his own. But the Sony executive said that the company sees Jackson's appeal and the film as a means to link up to the company's software markets.
Produced by Jon Peters, the former co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment (which is still headed by Peters' partner Peter Guber) and by Oscar-winning "Batman" set designer Anton Furst, "MidKnight" could go into production in the first half of 1992. The movie would be distributed by the Columbia Pictures division of Sony.
"Now the focus is on the release of Jackson's new album, but it will shift soon," the spokesman said.
He called it the "perfect" vehicle for a summertime release, but no target date has been set. Next summer is too soon, and summer 1993 may be too late, he said.
Caroline Thompson, screenwriter, “Vice” (September 28, 2009) (archived)
Vice: So you wrote the Michael Jackson movie that never happened?
Caroline Thompson: Yes. Larry Wilson, who I wrote The Addams Family with, and I wrote a film for him. The director was Anton Furst, who was the production designer on Tim Burton’s Batman.
Oh yeah, he killed himself, right?
Yeah. And the last words I said to him were, "Grow up, Anton." So Jon Peters, who produced Batman, went to be the head of Sony and promised Anton a directing gig there. And Anton naively took the gig but didn’t realise that it meant he couldn’t work with any other studio, so couldn’t work with Tim Burton again, which distressed him. At any rate he threw himself into this project for Michael Jackson, which we called MidKnight. I think the reason we decided to do a story about a knight was that a knight usually wears a helmet mask and we wanted to cover up Michael’s face because we thought a film audience wouldn’t take him seriously as an actor. We ourselves had a hard time taking him seriously as an actor. We had a very long and hilarious day at Neverland with him. It was Anton, our executive Amy Pascal who is now one of the heads at Sony, Larry and myself. There was this bathroom, which was full of paper wrappers and candy wrappers, all kinds of shit. It was really small, surrounded by a concrete wall, and Michael looked at it and said to us, "Isn’t it beautiful? It’s my favourite place where I go to be by myself." We had nachos for lunch, with cheese melted on top, served to us by these white Midwestern overweight women in brown coffee-shop uniforms with little white aprons and little hats. We met Bubbles, who was in residence at the time, and Anton reached out for Bubbles and Bubbles screamed and ran to the top of the jungle gym, and Michael made Anton crouch on the ground looking at the floor with his head bowed as a way of apologising to Bubbles. And we went to see the zoo. He had these giraffes in this enclosure, and there was this platform Michael walked up to where the giraffes came over to be petted, and the platform was level to their heads, so they’d come over and their eyes were the size of the tables, it was astonishing. But the funniest one was where we went to see his young lion, who was asleep. Michael told us to be very quiet. You know how in zoos there’s the cage the lion’s in, then two or three feet out there’s a little fence that keeps you at distance?
Right.
Well he urged us over the fence, so we were all gathered round staring at the lion asleep, and Michael hollered out and clapped his hands and the lion woke up and sprang at Amy, and she squealed and back-pedaled and fell over the fence and landed flat on her ass, and Michael laughed his head off. I mean, gales of laughter. And he said, "He always goes after the smallest person in the group." He laughed and laughed and laughed. It was a strange experience. We went to the movie theatre on his ranch, where on either side of the seats towards the back there were glass rooms that had hospital beds in them. I couldn’t tell if that was where Michael liked to sit or if that was for guests. And then, when we finished the script, I got a phone call from Michael. At the time, I thought it was my then-boyfriend Danny Elfman playing a joke on me, so when I heard the voice go: "Hi Caroline, it’s Michael Jackson," I answered, "Hi Michael!" in this Michael Jackson voice. Then I thought, Oh fuck, and I quickly worked out that it fucking was him, and he realised that I automatically made fun of him, and I don’t have any memory of what he said; I was just blushing and sweating the entire conversation.
Was that the last time you spoke to him?
Yeah.
Did you like him?
Well, I was fascinated by him. He had this little Band-Aid on his cheek, it was really small, and I just kept fantasising that… You know how you blow up a bicycle tyre? I just fantasised that something like that was under there to blow up his face. I was an admirer of him as a child, and as he aged and went on his weirdy journey, I just thought, How can this be a human being? It’s hard for any of us to imagine what it must be like to be someone who can’t go out of their house without being mobbed. He described to us how he would get in disguises and go out into the world, that was one of his greatest joys. I can’t say he made me feel sad, but it was close to that.
Did you talk about films with him?
We didn’t really. Mostly he just took us on his tour and he showed us his ranch.
I would imagine that he would have been an Edward Scissorhands fan.
Oh he was a huge Edward Scissorhands fan; that’s why I was hired for the job. I’m sure he would have loved to have been Edward Scissorhands.
So what happened to the project?
Well we turned it in, and Anton didn’t want to, which is when I said, "Grow up, Anton." I told him it is what it is and we’ll see what happens. Anton was scared, it was his first movie. He had no idea what shape it should be in to go to the studio. In those days, studios were in the development business, which they’re not really anymore, so things were taken and processed, as it were. But Anton was going to rehab, I guess he was a drunk; you’d go out for dinner with him and he’d look at the menu and he’d go, "I’ll have a brandy!" And evidently, none of us knew he was also a very serious Valium addict. Stanley Kubrick had driven him in despair to finding comfort in Valium and he’d never really gotten off it.
Rolling Stone (January 9, 1992)
He also has plans to star in his first feature film, tentatively titled Midknight, for Sony's Columbia Pictures and will hit the road to support Dangerous by the middle of 1992…
"The plan is for him to start work on his film," says Bob Jones, who for the past three years has been working for the star's own company MJJ Productions. "But with Michael you never know. That could certainly change. Since I've been here, Michael has been in complete control. He knows what works for him and for the public. He's much more fixed in his ideas as to how he wants to do things."
An insider said: “The storyline is a little corny, but Michael wanted to do something which had good triumphing over evil in a surrealist way to give hope to others.”