In the months before his death, Michael Jackson wasn't only gearing up for the start of his 50-show run in London; he was also getting set to co-direct and finance an indie film based on a true story about an orphan, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Last March, Jackson and his longtime friend and filmmaker Bryan Michael Stoller were having serious talks about adapting for the screen the memoir "They Cage the Animals at Night," a 1985 book about the experiences of Jennings Michael Burch, who was shuttled from one foster home to another as a child.

"Michael told me often he felt like he grew up as an orphan, like a foster kid, because he never was in one home," Stoller told the Reporter. "To him every hotel was like a different foster home. He said he used to sit in the window and see kids playing outside and cry because he couldn't be part of that."

While discussions about the adaptation had ramped up just before Jackson's death, Stoller said he and Jackson had actually been developing the project for seven years. In 2003, the pop singer interviewed Burch on camera at his Neverland Ranch estate.

"With all the pain and the stress and the pressure that you had to cope with, did you ever in your childhood think about, 'It's not worth it?' " Jackson asked Burch. "Did you ever try suicide?"

At one point during the conversation, Burch burst into tears as he clutched his childhood stuffed animal and Jackson rose to hug the author. "We're the same," MJ told him. "We're the same."

Stoller is in the process of marketing the interview footage and photographs to television networks and said that NBC, CBS and E! are interested in acquiring the material.

In a separate development for another Jackson TV program, talks between concert promoter AEG Live and television networks to broadcast a special about the King of Pop's final days have broken down, according to the Los Angeles Times. The special was positioned as a tie-in to a theatrical release and would not have included any new or exclusive footage of Jackson performing. NBC was in talks about the project earlier this week, but reportedly balked at AEG's $20 million asking price.

In addition, Sony Pictures will reportedly be releasing a film comprised of footage of MJ's final rehearsals at Los Angeles' Staples Center this Halloween.

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