Tag Archives: Th Anniversary
Spike Lee Is Working on a new Michael Jackson Documentary to Celebrate the Bad Albums 25th Year.
As part of the 25th anniversary of the “Bad” album, Spike Lee will be working on a documentary that will tell the story behind the scenes. Although Spike personally knew Michael, he says he still learned much more after being allowed to watch never seen before footage of the legendary superstar. Spike says,
“We have footage in this documentary that no one’s ever seen, stuff that Michael shot himself, behind-the-scenes stuff, We had complete access to the vaults of Michael Jackson. … He wrote 60 demos for the ‘Bad’ record. Only 11 made it. So we got to hear a lot of that stuff, too, so it was just a great experience.”
“You don’t have to be a Michael Jackson-head to enjoy this.”
Spike says that his documentary will allow you to see Michael from a more personal side. Also for the documentary he interviewed modern day industry giants, Kanye West, Mariah Carey, L.A. Reid and Sheryl Crow to just name a few.
He explains that the documentary is split between artists impacted by Michael and artists who worked along side him,
“We really divided it into two things: Artists today who were influenced by Michael, and then people who worked side by side — musicians, songwriters, technicians, engineers, people at the label, who were all committed to Michael, to the follow-up to the biggest record of all time, which still is ‘Thriller.’”
Lee will be holding his annual tribute to Jackson in Prospect Park in Brooklyn this summer on August 25th, he says this year it will be bigger and better,
“This year we’re going to focus on the ‘Bad’ album, we’re going to focus on the 25th anniversary, but at the same time we’re going to play his full catalog, including the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons,” he said. “It’s going to be even bigger and better this year.”
Lee’s documentary will just be one component in a multilayered celebration of MJ’s “Bad” album’s 25th anniversary. There will be an official re-release of the album on Sept 18th . It will feature additional tracks, a DVD and other bonus material. Spikes documentary which is still untitled will also be released later this year although a due date has not be identified.
Spielberg Corrects a Classic, He Restores the E.T. Blu-Ray Release Back to it’s Original 1982 Greatness.
When Spielberg re-released E.T. in theaters in 2002 he messed with a masterpiece. He CG’d ET’s head, added in extra scenes and he took away the rifles that the cops had when they were chasing Elliot on the bike.
So! What’s the Big Deal?
You don’t think that makes a difference? Imagine you are a kid running from the cops with an alien in your bike basket. The police are chasing you and whip out walkie talkies……Nothing.
What if they whip out rifles? Exactly. Now you are peddling literally as your life depended on it. Fast enough to make that f**kin’ bike fly!
Spielberg admitted he regretted the decision and during a packed audience at 30th anniversary screening of “Raiders of the lost Ark” he admitted his mistake and said that the blu Ray release of E.T. would be untouched. In his own words,
For myself, I tried [changing a film] once and lived to regret it. Not because of fan outrage, but because I was disappointed in myself. I got overly sensitive to [some of the reaction] to E.T., and I thought if technology evolved, [I might go in and change some things]…it was OK for a while, but I realized what I had done was I had robbed people who loved E.T. of their memories of E.T. [...] If I put just one cut of E.T. on Blu-ray and it was the 1982, would anyone object to that? [The crowd yells "NO!" in unison.] OK, so be it.”
Spielberg has kept his word. The walkie talkies are gone and the rifles are back!
The two scenes that were shown on the re-release will not be offered as bonuses as well as a “making of” mini documentary and a Spielberg interview gushing about his greatness.
The rifles are back!
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