It sounds like a joke set-up, but there’s a road trip movie in the works about Michael Jackson, Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando (and that’s not the crazy part). The British made-for-television project centers on a mythical road trip starring three of pop culture history’s most eccentric personalities. According to legend (and one of Liz Taylor’s former assistants), the trio all found themselves stranded in New York City after flights were stopped in the wake of the September 11, 2001 bombings. Having places to go and people to see, the three titans of entertainment piled into a rented car and got as far as Ohio.
So, obviously you have to make a movie about that story, even if it’s not true. In fact, one of Taylor’s former assistants claims that Taylor didn’t tag along on the road trip at all. Instead, the Hollywood legend reportedly stayed behind, opting instead to visit Ground Zero and pray in a local church. Who’s actually buying the “Liz Taylor spent the evening praying” story, though, right?
Of course, the base narrative wasn’t freaky enough for the film’s producers, who have pushed the crazy bar even higher by casting Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson. That casting choice naturally made headlines for it’s racial overtones, but Fiennes remains confident, saying of the film, “It’s a fun, lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek road trip of what celebrity of that kind is like. But also it’s rather beautiful and poignant about their relationships.”
The cast is rounded out by Stockard Channing as Liz Taylor and the great Brian Cox as the fast food guzzling Brando. Racism aside (they couldn’t find a black actor for the role?), this is one half-hour of television that may be worth sitting through for the crazy factor alone.