b'Cover StoryI storyboarded the sequence and Rickcinemas. There were six or seven of themMichaels death obviously generated allmovie, you have a finite amount of time andThe ending? Yeah, he wanted to show designed and built the pieces. That took a one in Victoria Station, Leicester Square,this renewed interest and stuff, but Thriller,money. And Thriller was shot in, I think, fiverage. And so he did this thing where hes week to shoot, and it was very complicated.Piccadilly Circus, and so on. They showedthroughout all of Michaels career, hasdays. Im sure there is.smashing stuff, dancing on the car, and On Thriller, I did just the opposite. It wascartoons and newsreels and were foralways had the phenomenon of peopleWhen you went on to shoot the videothe thing that I was taken aback by was dark, I had cutaways to a girl screaming, bigparents to drop off their kids when theydoing the dance. They do it at weddings,for Michael Jacksons single Black orhe started fondling himself. I went, Cut! music, lots of soundI mean, it was muchwere shopping on High Street. Back then,bar mitzvahs, quinceaeras, high schoolWhite, it was a very different situation,What the fuck is that? and Mike said, easier. they were showing Road Runner cartoons.graduations, football games, and thisright? Well, Madonna does it. Prince does it. Do you recall a moment when youWhen I came back in 1981 to shoot theannual thing called Thrill The WorldBlack or White was different.And I said, Youre not Madonna and were shooting Thriller that you realizedfilm, it had become a porno theater, andthats been going on for many years. What happened was I was contacted byyoure not Prince. Youre Mickey Mouse. this would be something special? that was the only change in the script, soAnd to credit Michael Peters, its aSigurjn Sighvatsson, who was the headYou shouldnt be doing that. I remember You know, I enjoyed it, and I thoughtI said weve got to shoot this porno. Itsgreat sequence, but its not that hard toof Propaganda, and Propaganda had madethey called down Sandy Gallen, who was it was coolwhen you say special, domaking fun of those English Whoops!do. a deal with Sony to produce all the videosMichaels manager du jour and was very you mean did I know it would have suchMy Knickers!-type movies, the reallyExactly! Its like the Macarena. Itsfor the Dangerous album. And they were inflamboyant. He was just yelling, Michael! extraordinary success? silly stupid ones they made in the 60s andnot that hard to do the basic steps, andbig trouble. Theyd already spent a fortuneDo it! Do it! I was very opposed to it, and it Youre a longtime filmmaker, and most70s. I remember the first day of shootingI believe that is part of it. Have you everand hadnt produced anything, and Michaelwas much more outrageous than it appears filmmakers have those moments whenthe movie, we shot the porno, and I justgone on YouTube and looked at all thewasnt showing up. Basically, they calledin the finished thing.they know theyve got something amazingremember the British Werewolf crewThriller stuff? me because they knew that Michael wouldYou have one zipper move there.on film. Youve shot something, and it justlooking around and thinking, What theYes. Theres a lot of it. show up if I was there. Which was true. So IYeah, I cut that one way down. (laugh)turns out perfectly. Was there a momentfuck kind of movie are we doing? BoomDid you see the Mexico City one? called him and said, Michael, the only wayThe CGI stuff on the windows on Thriller that felt that way for you? mike in the shot? Dont worry about it! No, but I have seen the one of theIll do this is if you show up. And he said,[racial epithets, etc.], that was all post-Thats interesting. Ive certainly beenWhy do you think, after all this time,prisoners in the yard. Yes I will, and Dont worry. I mean, theyproduction, so you didnt shoot that. Were happy with things before, but I neverin this world of internet on-demandOh, well, thats nuts. Have you seenhad David Fincher, David Lynch, a lot ofyou involved at all?think, gee, this is going to turn out well. Imeverything, people are still drawn to thethe one with the firemen or the Bollywoodreally good directors were burned throughMJ, with panther and arm cast, onNo, they did all that afterwards when usually worried about the next shot andThriller video? knockoffs? before I got there. They just couldntthe set of Black or White the controversy happened. In fact, my trying to get everything to work.I think there are three or four things.No. accomplish anything. I said, Ill do this butexperience with Michael is that everything You mean when you shot the CatholicBecause it is themed around horror, itsThe Mexico City one has, like, 15,000youre paying me on a weekly basis. (laugh) he did, including the controversial stuff, High School Girls in Trouble scene inreally appropriate for Halloween, so itspeople or something. Its extraordinary. ItsYou didnt want to get burned a secondsomehow would turn out positive. I mean, Kentucky Fried Movie, you had somethingalways a perennial on Halloween. Two,just crazy. time, right? on Black or White, one day one of the special? Michael is such a massive star, and this isIs there any moment that you lookI want this much weekly in cash on aproduction assistants had fallen off his Well, I knew it was going to be silly!a great showcase for Michael, when heat in Thriller that you would have doneregular basis. (laugh) What should havebike, and was wearing this bandage brace Funny story, when I wrote Werewolf inlooked his best, young and gorgeous anddifferently? taken three or four weeks took twelveon his arm, this lace-up bandage thing. And 1969, London had all these cartoonenthusiastic, and hes so charming in it.Im sure if I studied it. When you make aweeks because Michael was kind of, well,Michael said to him, Thats nice! Whats out there at the time. It was interesting. Mythat? He said, I hurt my arm. Michael job on Thriller was great, he was wonderfulsaid, Can I have it? and the guy said, and it was fun. This one, my job really wasWhat? (laugh) Can I have it? Well, I to kind of protect Michael, so he didnt lookguess He took it off and Michael put Landis and MJ on the settoo insane. Because a lot of his ideas I justit on and said, John, may I wear this in of Black or White rejected. Many of them he did later, by thethe video? So I went to my wife [hired way. You know that giant statue of himself?Mike said, as costume designer again] and said, I wouldnt do that. Deborah, can Michael wear that? and she The storyline for this one, then, isWell, said, You know what? Michael will wear it coming from that crazy place he wasand it will become a fashion accessory. And inhabiting. thats exactly what happened, they started Yes, filtered a lot, but yes. What wasMadonna does selling them. You know, he had a knack. Its exciting for me was that I got a chance,like that thing at the beginning of Thriller. which Id been trying since 1971, toit. Prince does That just helped sell it. And the controversy do morphing, which up until that time,on Black or White helped move millions computers couldnt do it. When they finallyof records.could do it, I had those faces morph, whichit. And I said, In retrospect, who would have at the time was startling and revolutionary.predicted his last days, and how his entire Now you can buy that software and do it onYoure not canon of work is viewed now? He was your laptop. already arguably the hugest star in the What was going on in the last fourworld.minutes of that video when hes goingMadonna and I have to say that death tends to this nuts, busting out the windows on the car?is true story. I was in my office at Universal Whats the idea there? youre not with Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis and I actually shot Mike doing a wonderfulMichael ODonoghue. I had an assistant tap dance sequence that he then cut out.named Debbie then, and Debbie came By that time, I was saying, Mike, yourePrince. Youre into our office and was white as a sheet. such a great dancer, but he insisted onI said, Whats the matter? She was very doing the same twelve moves everyoneMickey Mouse. shaken, and said, Elvis died. And Michael loved. He could really tap, so we did aODonoghue said, Good career move! I wonderful tap dance number. The onlyremember thinking that was very funny thing left of it in the video is you see himand very cruel. I never thought it would be do two steps and then kick a bottle inprophetic. When people die, they become slow motion. He had quite a number thatmythological. Ive had that experience, he took out, and I was very disappointed.unfortunately, several times. Since Michael 10MVTMISSUE #1ISSUE #1MVTM11'