Go-ahead for Jackson rehearsal film

In Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Mitchell Beckloff approved a deal over the film between the estate of the late singer, concert promoter AEG Live and Columbia Pictures.

Central to the movie will be footage taken as the King of Pop prepared for his sell-out London comeback tour taken just days before he died.

Jackson was pronounced dead on June 25, just days before he was due to fly to England to commence his 50-concert residency at the O2 arena.

In the week following his death, footage emerged featuring Jackson rehearsing for the shows in Los Angeles. The proposed film would be based on these sessions. It could also include videos prepared for the backdrop of his This Is It shows.

The court hearing had been set aside for the judge to rule over the proposed film after Jackson's mother Katherine was given the opportunity to review the contracts and raise any objections.

Mrs Jackson did not object to the film, but her lawyers did raise questions over other contracts concerning AEG Live and merchandiser Bravado. The estate wants to enter into agreement with both firms over the sale of Jackson memorabilia.

Mrs Jackson's lawyer said he had raised several issues over the proposed deals. Howard Weitzman, a lawyer representing the estate's administrators, told the court that some of those questions were "not acceptable". He added that the estate had aggressively negotiated the contracts and that there was little room to strike a better deal.

It is also believed that Mrs Jackson wants AEG Live to hand its footage of concert rehearsals to the estate, something it is unwilling to do.

The concert promoter has about 100 hours of footage. Columbia Pictures paid 60 million dollars (£36 million) for the rights to use the images in a film due to be released later this year.