Micheal Jackson - Never Before Seen Footage Up For Sale

A never-before-seen backstage film of Michael Jackson's legendary Dangerous tour is set to fetch more than £4million when it goes up for auction later this month. The documentary was made using state-of-the-art equipment. But the King of Pop canned it and sacked the entire crew — before giving the only existing copy of the film to his driver.

The unnamed chauffeur — who said he helped provide cars for the star when he performed in Sao Paolo, Brazil — claims the star gave it to him as a "reward or a bonus" for his "transportation services". He kept the video a secret until after Jackson's death in 2009 when he put a short extract of it on YouTube.

Gift

Jackson's record label and lawyers demanded exclusive rights — but a court ruled in favour of the driver, saying the film had been a gift. It was also ruled that he could not make copies of the video, so the man has now decided to put the tape up for sale.

The footage is set to spark a bidding war when it goes under the hammer on November 26. The film was made during the 1992/1993 world tour. It was the pinnacle of Jackson's career and saw him performing to 3.5 million in 69 countries. The two-hour documentary features behind-the-scenes images and contains footage of Jordy Chandler, the boy at the centre of the child-abuse story that dogged Jackson's career.

The star scrapped the release of the film after he was said to be unhappy with the finished product. Ted Owen, CEO of Fame Bureau auctioneers, where the tape will be sold, said: "I'm very excited that this tape is finally going to be seen because of its quality, the amount of cameras used and the sheer closeness you are to the performance when watching it."

Jackson died in June 2009 after a fatal overdose of prescription drugs. Earlier this month his personal doctor Conrad Murray was convicted of the singer's involuntary manslaughter. 

I love Michael Jackson and would love to see some new footage but I think that Michael Jackson was a perfectionist and if he felt the finished product was not good enough it should remain unseen. It is clearly against his wishes to have it released otherwise he would have released it himself.