Michael Jackson’s Auteur Music Video Directors: Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, David Fincher and More

The new biopic “Michael” covers Michael Jackson’s rise from precocious frontman of the Jackson 5 in the 1960s to launching his solo career in the mid-80s. So, as one would expect, the film recreates the making of Jackson’s legendary music video, “Thriller,” in 1982. But when the King of Pop (played by his nephew Jaafar Jackson) shyly asks a producer to deliver a note to the director, a man named John, audiences might not immediately recall who he’s referring to.

Of course, Jackson means John Landis, whose filmography already boasted “Animal House,” “The Blues Brothers,” “An American Werewolf in London” and “Trading Places.”

But Landis was far from the only major filmmaker that the King of Pop collaborated with to bring his short films to life. Jackson commissioned the likes of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Spike Lee and more to craft some of the most enduring music videos of all time.

• John Landis: “Thriller” (1983), “Black or White” (1991)

  Jackson approached John Landis after seeing “An American Werewolf in London,” and the two cooked up the nearly 14-minute horror short, which is widely considered one of the greatest music videos ever made. Shot on 35mm with a budget of roughly $500,000 (about 10 times the average music video at the time), “Thriller” featured the work of Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker, choreography by Michael Peters and a spoken-word cameo by Vincent Price. When the video debuted on MTV in December 1983, it effectively doubled sales of the “Thriller” album, and in 2009, it became the first music video inducted into the National Film Registry. The music video has over a billion views on YouTube to date.

  In 1991, Jackson and Landis reunited for “Black or White,” creating an 11-minute spectacle (with a $4 million production budget), which debuted simultaneously in 27 countries to an estimated 500 million viewers. The video featured Macaulay Culkin, a face-morphing sequence pioneered by Pacific Data Images and a controversial epilogue in which Jackson — who morphed out of a panther — wrecks a car in a solo dance sequence that drew widespread outcry. It remains one of the most-watched music video premieres in history.

• Martin Scorsese: “Bad” (1987)

  Fresh off directing “The Color of Money,” Martin Scorsese brought his gritty, kinetic New York sensibility to bear on an 18-minute short film for “Bad,” the title track from Jackson’s follow-up to “Thriller.” It was written by Richard Price, who collaborated with Scorsese on “Color of Money,” and shot over six weeks at Brooklyn’s Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets subway station. 

  The film follows prep-school kid Darryl (Jackson) returning to his old neighborhood and squaring off with childhood friends. It was then-unknown Wesley Snipes, cast as gang leader Mini Max, who arguably stole the film. Snipes has since joked that Jackson mistook him for an actual gang member recruited from the streets. 

  The film shifts from black-and-white realism to color as Jackson dons his soon-to-be signature buckle jacket and launches into a choreographed subway showdown. It served as a stylistic leap for Scorsese, yet executed through the characteristic camera movement that audiences would come to know. The video premiered as a CBS primetime special the same day the “Bad” album dropped, Aug. 31, 1987.

• John Singleton: “Remember the Time” (1992)

  John Singleton was the hottest director in Hollywood when Jackson tapped him to helm “Remember the Time,” just months after “Boyz n the Hood” made Singleton, at 24, the first Black filmmaker and youngest person ever nominated for the Academy Award for best director. 

  Singleton agreed to the project on one condition: an entirely Black cast. The result was a lavish nine-minute Afrocentric epic set in ancient Egypt, choreographed by Fatima Robinson and filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood. Eddie Murphy played a bored pharaoh opposite Iman, his queen. Magic Johnson also appeared in a supporting role, an act of solidarity Jackson personally insisted on after Johnson had recently disclosed his HIV diagnosis. Jackson, dressed in gold satin, played a mysterious sorcerer who captivates the queen and must flee the palace. The video premiered simultaneously on ABC, NBC, Fox and BET on Feb. 2, 1992.

• David Fincher: “Who Is It” (1993)

  Long before “Se7en,” “Fight Club” and “The Social Network,” David Fincher was one of Hollywood’s most in-demand music video directors, and “Who Is It” stands as one of the most stylistically sophisticated entries in Jackson’s catalogue. 

  Abandoning the elaborate choreography of his earlier work, Jackson plays a heartbroken man unraveling the double life of a lover who works as a high-class call girl, with model Yasmin Le Bon cast in the role. Filmed partly at Neverland Ranch, Fincher directed a dreamy and psychologically tense prefigure to the eventual visual style of his later features. 

  The video was completed in 1992 but received limited U.S. airplay. After Jackson performed a segment of the song on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in February 1993, a different compilation version aired domestically instead. The Fincher cut, which circulated internationally, remains the more artistically significant of the two.

• Spike Lee: “They Don’t Care About Us,” (1996) “This Is It” (2009)

  One of Jackson’s most controversial and iconic songs, “They Don’t Care About Us,” was accompanied by an equally provocative music video, directed by filmmaker Spike Lee.
  
  Organizing and shooting the video, released in 1996, was an extensive process. State authorities originally tried to ban Jackson from filming in Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fearing that depictions of poverty might affect the country’s tourism rate, and accused Jackson of exploiting the poor.
  
  A judge banned Jackson from filming, but the ruling was eventually overturned by an injunction. While the government was reluctant to let Jackson shoot in Brazil, residents seemed more open to the idea. A real-life fan broke onto the shoot and hugged Jackson, causing him to fall, but the incident made it into the music video.
  
  For the first time in his career, Jackson made a second music video for a single, this time shooting in a prison with cellmates. The second edition contains real footage of police attacking African Americans, the military crackdown of the protests in Tiananmen Square, the Ku Klux Klan, the assassination attempt of George Wallace and other human rights abuse cases.
  
  In 2020, Lee created a third music video that incorporated parts of both the Brazil and prison versions, along with footage from the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and an aerial view of Washington D.C.’s Black Lives Matter Plaza.
  
  Before that, Jackson directed the music video for “This Is It,” which was released after Jackson’s death in 2009. Almost five minutes long, the music video featured various scenes of Jackson’s hometown and former residence in Gary, Indiana, along with photos and videos of him and tributes from his fans around the world.

• Francis Ford Coppola: “Captain EO” (1986)

  Jackson and director Francis Ford Coppola didn’t collaborate on a music video; they created “Captain EO,” the 3D science fiction short film shown at several Disney theme parks until 1998.
  
  “Captain EO” was executive produced by George Lucas and created as a joint project between Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm. The score was written by James Horner and featured the songs “We Are Here to Change the World” and “Another Part of Me,” both written and performed by Jackson.
  
  The film followed Jackson as Captain EO as he and his ragtag crew are sent to a desolate world run by a witch and tasked with bringing her a gift. Captured upon arrival, Captain EO has his robot crew transform into musical instruments and sings to defeat the villains, turning the planet into a beautiful paradise.

  Parkgoers viewed the “Captain EO” as part of an attraction with in-theater effects. The attraction returned to the Disney theme parks in 2010 as a tribute after Jackson’s death and was shown for the final time at Epcot on December 6, 2015.

• Herb Ritts: “In the Closet” (1992)

  The third single from Jackson’s eighth album, 1991’s “Dangerous,” “In the Closet” was originally intended as a duet between Jackson and Madonna. The finished song features female vocals by a “Mystery Girl”, who was later revealed to be Princess Stéphanie of Monaco.
  
  While Princess Stéphanie did not make an appearance in Jackson’s video, fashion royalty Naomi Campbell did.
  
  Photographer Herb Ritts directed the video, which was shot in the spring of 1992 in a small town in California’s Colorado Desert. The sepia colored video features Jackson performing sensual dance routines with the supermodel. “In the Closet” currently has more than 104 million views on YouTube
  
  Written and produced by Jackson and Teddy Riley, the song became the album’s third consecutive Top 10 pop single and reached number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100.