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"They Cage the Animals at Night" Film

Date confirmed on the "Miss Cast Away and the Island Girls" official website FAQ (archived) (“Michael Jackson's scenes were shot in September 2003.”); this interview would have been filmed during this period.

Bryan Stoller, director of “Miss Cast Away”, MTV News

"We were sitting in his theater — this was probably '99 or 2000," Stoller said. "He handed me this book, 'They Cage the Animals at Night,' and said he'd been wanting to turn it into a movie and thought I'd be the perfect co-director for it.

"I submitted the book to Mel Gibson's Icon Productions, and Gibson actually liked the book a lot," he continued, saying that the threesome almost made the film in 2002. "I spoke with Mel and he wanted to meet Michael. They had never met personally; I set up a meeting between the three of us. It was pretty interesting: Here I am, a country boy from Canada, introducing Mel Gibson to Michael Jackson. We sat for three hours."

Although Gibson's company has since severed ties with the project, Jackson recently informed Stoller that he intends to make the film now that the trial is behind him.

"It's a true story of ['Cage' author Jennings Michael Burch] in the late '40s, growing up in orphanages, and how rough a time he had. He had no real friends — all he had was stuffed animals. Michael really relates to it because Michael feels that he grew up like an orphan; he wasn't imprisoned in an orphanage, but he was pretty much imprisoned in hotel rooms by his father, and Michael said he used to stare outside at the kids playing basketball or doing normal kid things."

Thus, perhaps the most famous pop-culture figure of the last quarter-century and his B-moviemaking partner are currently shopping "Cage" around Hollywood, and have even discussed financing the film independently. With Stoller insisting that he will continue to stand by his controversial friend, there might just be more thumbs-up faxes yet to come. Providing, of course, that they can convince the elephants to stay out of frame.

“The Hollywood Reporter” (July 21, 2009) (archived)

Stoller said he had a 23-year friendship with the pop star and was his partner in the film company Magic Shadows. He was to have co-directed the movie, called "They Cage the Animals at Night," which Stoller said they had been developing for seven years.

The project was based on a 1985 book about the real-life experiences of author Jennings Michael Burch, who bounced around foster homes as a child. Jackson showed the book to Stoller in 2002 at his Neverland estate and asked if he wanted to produce and co-direct a movie version.

"Michael told me often he felt like he grew up as an orphan, like a foster kid, because he never was in one home," Stoller said. "To him every hotel was like a different foster home. He said he used to sit in the window and see kids playing outside and cry because he couldn't be part of that."

But insiders in the Jackson camp said there was no formal deal in place for any Jackson involvement in "Cage"; discussions between the artist and Stoller occurred when Jackson was without management, which may have frowned on any distractions as he prepared for the London shows.

Stoller optioned the book for $1 -- initially without telling Burch about Jackson's involvement. When he did tell him, Stoller said the author was excited to work with the singer.

Jackson, meanwhile, was concerned that Burch, then 67 and suffering from cancer, might not survive to see the movie made. So Stoller suggested bringing Burch to Neverland in 2003, where Jackson turned the tables and interviewed him for what was to be a TV special and for the eventual DVD.

Stoller recorded their meeting, which added to a collection of videos he made with Jackson over the years, and to hours of audio recordings from their meetings.

..."They Cage the Animals" also was impacted by the molestation charges, Stoller said. In 2003 the producer arranged a three-hour meeting in a Universal City hotel between Jackson and Mel Gibson, who besides being an actor is a producer and partner in Icon Prods. "They got along great," Stoller said. "It was kind of funny. Mel was a little nervous. He was hugging a pillow the whole time, kind of playing with it. Michael was kind of shy."

Icon signed a deal to develop the project with a budget of $12 million-$20 million, according to Stoller, who was paid by Icon to write the screenplay. A couple months later, when Jackson was indicted in Santa Barbara, Icon put the project in turnaround, and Gibson stopped returning Stoller's phone calls. There were news reports in 2005 that Icon had dropped the project. A spokesman for Icon said the company briefly was involved in developing it in 1995 but had lost interest by 1997. Stoller has a copy of his contract with Icon dated 2002.

Stoller said Icon still owns the screenplay, but an Icon rep rebutted that, saying the company has had no involvement or ownership for 10 years. Gibson declined comment for this report.

Jackson did meet with Burch, and during their highly charged conversation he asked the author if he had ever considered suicide. Burch said he had, and Jackson said he too had considered it during his darkest days.

...Three months before his death, Stoller said he and Jackson had "a pretty serious meeting" about reviving "They Cage the Animals" as an indie feature.

"Michael was going to put up $8 million and not have to deal with any studios or producers and then take it to the studios afterward," Stoller said. "He was very passionate about being a director. He was determined to make this movie."