Michael Jackson's This Is It tour to be released as movie

MICHAEL Jackson's final concert will hit Australian cinemas on October 30, with rehearsal footage from the This Is It tour turned into a full movie.


Hundreds of hours of live and backstage footage of rehearsals for the London tour were shot in high definition in LA in June.




Sections of the concert will be screened in 3D, while interviews with Jackson's friends and collaborators will also feature in This Is It, which will be shown with the support of the late singer's family.




Money raised from the movie will go to the Michael Jackson Family Trust, named in his will as the beneficiary of his assets.

Promoter AEG sold rights to the footage for a reported $62 million to Sony Pictures, which will release the film.




Sony Music is tipped to release a CD soundtrack of the movie this year.

Kenny Ortega, director of the This Is It tour, said Jackson was the show's architect.




"This Is It was Michael's last theatrical work and although it was still a work in progress, I think the footage will show that the process was something that Michael deeply enjoyed and that it was clear that he was on his way to another theatrical triumph."

Jackson still has four albums in the Australian top 10 six weeks after his death.

Michael Jackson: The Remix Suite will be released on October 30.

The album features early Jackson material such as ABC and Never Can Say Goodbye remixed by the likes of Pharrell Williams, Frankie Knuckles and Dallas Austin.

Meanwhile, the fight for control of Jackson's estate flared yesterday when his mother locked horns with his estate's administrators over a lucrative merchandising deal.

Katherine Jackson formally objected to the film's associated merchandising bonanza.

Lawyers in favour of the plans claimed her objection could cause the deal to unravel, potentially robbing the estate of millions of dollars.

And in a bizarre sideshow, a woman announced she had lodged a formal declaration that she is the biological mother of Jackson's three children.



Outside court, Claire Elisabeth Fields Cruise claimed Jackson was the father of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's young son, Conner.

Jackson's family has rejected many wild theories about the children's heritage.