Director Tim Burton is known for his eccentric movies that feature oddball and unusual characters and, of course, the occasional blockbuster (he directed the first Batman). With all the movies he did get made, there were a number of them that didn’t. One of those included Michael Jackson.
In a recent deep dive with Deadline, the 64-year-old director revealed a little bit more about the jettisoned project. The movie was going to be a horror/musical slasher movie called House Of Wax. Burton revealed that only one person was interested – Jackson himself. As for the studios?
“They said ‘no’. Can you believe that?” the director shared, also revealing that he’s used to this kind of treatment for certain projects. “I have worked for several months on things that got rejected,” he said.
House of Wax is of course originally a 1953 horror movie about a madman who lives in a wax museum and uses real human beings as exhibits. Jackson, who had just been in court over allegations of child abuse, wanted to star.
Some may remember a remake of the movie in 2005 starring Paris Hilton. Although not many people because it was a pretty spectacular failure despite featuring hot actors of the moment like Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, and Jared Padalecki.
It would recoup its $40 million budget with overseas viewing but it was eviscerated by critics. Burton would of course eventually scratch the musical horror itch with the excellent remake of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Jackson passed away in 2009 so we’ll never really know what could have been.