Thriller' Movie in the Works

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The Michael Jackson documentary This Is It shattered box-office records for concert films. Now, a movie based on Jackson's "Thriller" video is reportedly being shopped around to Hollywood studios, Deadline reports.

Like the planned film inspired by the music of Beach Boys, which isn"t about the band itself, the Thriller movie will take a meta approach, focusing on "folklore" around "Thriller," looking at Vincent Price, the horror actor who narrated the video, and the town that Price grew up in.

Michael Jackson: The Rolling Stone Covers

GK Films, which has other music-related films in the works (Sacha Baron Cohen's Freddie Mercury biopic and the Jersey Boys big screen adaptation), is reportedly to be first in line for the project, which will be helmed by This Is It director and Jackson collaborator Kenny Ortega, based on a script by (uncredited) Hangover writer Jeremy Garelick. "Thriller" songwriter Rod Templeton will also be involved.

The film will have a budget of about $50 million, but that doesn't include what will likely be a hefty price to secure the rights to "Thriller" from the Michael Jackson estate. For Jackson fans hoping for a iopic, there is some good news: Deadline writes that Hollywood vet Ivan Reitman has his eyes on a film based on Jackson's early years.

This week Jackson was named the past year"s top-earning dead celebrity by Forbes magazine.

Michael Jackson's life in photos

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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