Someone finally figured out a way to combine the morbid curiosity of TV viewers (fully on display in the omnipresent Lamar Odom coverage) and the undying thirst for more Michael Jackson. The final days of the King of Pop are being adapted into a TV show.
Warner Bros. Television Group snagged the rights to turn Tavis Smiley’s Before You Judge Me: The Triumph and Tragedy of Michael Jackson’s Last Days, before the book has even been written.
The book and series will focus on the last week’s of Jackson’s life, when he was preparing for the This Is It concerts, a series of 50 shows at London’s 02 Arena. Jackson died of cardiac arrest in June 2009, a mere 18 days before the concerts were scheduled to start. The deal for Smiley’s book (scheduled to be released in June of next year) includes the rights to adopt another Smiley book based around the author and television host’s interactions with poet Maya Angelou.
Because of the narrow scope of the book (it only covers 16 weeks), we won’t see MJ skinny-dipping with Jane Fonda or hanging out with Wesley Snipes in Harlem, but we’d all be on board for anyone who wants to dramatize that.
(Via NME)
