We'll probably never know what negotiations were involved in persuading Michael Jackson to make his first live appearance in the UK in a decade at the World Music Awards in London this Wednesday. Was it the fact that the WMA - a peculiar event that hands out gongs to the biggest-selling acts of the year, regardless of merit - offered him a "Diamond Award"? The Diamond is the WMA biggie, reserved for artists who've sold more than 100 million albums - maybe it was the prospect of being in the company of previous winners Celine Dion and Bon Jovi that swung it for Jackson?
With an estimated global TV audience of (according to the WMA website) of 1 billion, this is a golden opportunity to rehabilitate his image, and Jackson is treating it as such. He plans to steal the show by "recreating" his famous Thriller video on stage. One thing we know about the self-styled king of pop is that he doesn't do subtle, so no doubt he's planning something even more over-the-top than the original video (which, don't forget, was both the longest and most expensive pop promo ever made).
Well, here's where the Guardian music blog can help. If you're reading, Jacko, we have some suggestions for this Thriller business. Thanks to YouTube's dedicated army of amateur comedians-cum-film-makers, quite a few alternative versions of Thriller already exist, and some contain ideas worth stealing - er, considering - for Wednesday. Check them out, and then tell me you're not fired up with excitement.
The most impressive (the one that most urgently raises the question, "Why would anyone bother to make this?") is Lego Thriller , which, at 13mins 42sec, is actually nine seconds longer than the original. The entire video is enacted by Lego figures; watch and wonder.
Bollywood Thriller is three minutes of Indian kitsch, with Jackson's "monster" role played by a moustachioed man in a red PVC suit. Despite being accompanied by dancing zombies and the scary Thriller tune, he looks as if he's actually auditioning for a porn video.
Action Figure Thriller features an Action Man-style doll dancing to the song, while in Mark's Thriller , some thwarted auteur has filmed an ordinary guy doing Jackson's dance moves in a suburban dining room.
There's so much inspiration here that Jackson might well want to incorporate all of them into the show. But enough of him. What about the rest of you? Which of these is the best Thriller?
