World premieres in 25 cities are planned for the Michael Jackson documentary 'This Is It.' (PHOTO: Sony Pictures Releasing)

"This Is It," the documentary that follows pop star Michael Jackson in the months before his death, will have a global launch in 25 cities on October 27-28, according to the film’s distributor. Are you planning to watch the Michael Jackson documentary? Tell us what you think about the movie in the comments below.

A 6 p.m. PT event in Los Angeles on October 27 will launch premieres of “This Is It” worldwide. Simultaneous debuts will be staged in 15 cities, including London, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Johannesburg and Seoul, Sony Pictures said.

The documentary chronicles Jackson’s rehearsals for concerts that were scheduled to have taken place this past summer at London’s O2 Arena.

Directed by Jackson’s choreographer and creative director Kenny Ortega, the film draws on more than 100 hours of footage shot between March and June.

The public will be able to view the film, which will have a two-week run in theaters, three hours after the red-carpet premieres. Tickets go on sale September 27.

These days it seems Joaquin Phoenix’s time on screen is confined to dubious chat show appearances and even more dubious performances in his new guise as a rapper.

Beauty and the beast: Gwyneth Paltrow looks pained. Joaquin just looks...

The two-times Oscar nominated star of "Gladiator" and "Walk the Line" star has barely left the headlines over the past few months since he announced his decision to retire from acting to launch a new career as a rapper.

The latest is a confrontation with a heckler at a hip hop gig in Miami last week: “We have a f*****g a*****e in the audience,” Phoenix shouted.

“I’ve got a million f*****g dollars in my bank account. What have you got?” he ranted and launched himself off stage heading for the dissenting audience member, before being pulled away by security guards.

Then yesterday Gwyneth Paltrow, Phoenix’s co-star in James Gray's “Two Lovers,” the final film he made before announcing his retirement rather scathingly suggested he get some “authenticity” on MTV UK.

All this, amid fierce speculation in the geekosphere that the whole thing is an elaborate hoax (well, that and "could he have gone mad?").

It all started back in October 2008 when he announced his retirement from acting. This was followed in February by a bizarre appearance on U.S. chat show Letterman.  Sporting his now trademark shaggy beard, dark glasses and rotund belly, the formerly bankable star mumbled his way through the appearance, at one point sticking his chewing gum under Letterman’s desk.

This was closely followed by the actor’s announcement that he was giving up acting to launch a career as a hip hop artist.

But, by this point fans had already had their first dose of Phoenix’s comical attempts when someone posted a video of him falling off the stage during a shambolic performance in Las Vegas  on YouTube.

So, is it all just an elaborate hoax?

The 34 year-old said that he has built a recording studio at his house and is recording tracks and every aspect of the former film star’s budding hip hop career is being filmed by actor Casey Affleck for a feature length documentary about his career change, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

It is this fact, combined with the title of Phoenix’s first track “Can I Get a Refund?” that has fans everywhere wondering if it can really be for real.

Paltrow added to the speculation this week when she hinted to MTV that perhaps Phoenix wouldn’t be giving up acting for good.

“I’m not a hundred percent sure that that’s really going to be the case.

“I think that there might be some other explanation or something going on, I’m on quite sure what. But I can’t believe that he’s really going to quit forever to become a rapper. It seems odd,” she said.

What do you think? Is Joaquin for real or is this all a stunt?

Despite his 'years in the wilderness,' Mickey Rourke is a pretty well-connected guy.

Throughout our conversation he is profane, very funny and casually drops in a "Francis Coppola" anecdote here, a "Sean Penn" story there.

Mickey Rourke called in a favor from old buddy Axl Rose of Guns N Roses for the soundtrack of 'The Wrestler.'

In fact, in the course of our 15 minutes together,  he also manages to throw in references to  Dennis Hopper, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, "Chris" Walken and Harvey Keitel (the last four being his fellow alumnus from legendary NYC acting school, Actors Studio).

His friends are not restricted to the movie world either. During the making of his latest movie, "The Wrestler," the former boxer pulled in a favour from old buddy Axl Rose of seminal 80s rockers  "Guns N Roses,"  who lent him one of the band's  songs "Sweet Child O' Mine"  for the soundtrack of the film.

"Axl Rose is a good friend of mine and actually, when I used to box, I used to come out to "Sweet Child O' Mine," but on our $5.5 million budget we couldn't afford that music so he gave it to me," said Rourke, "So that was something really special."

Rourke was probably pretty glad to be able to help out. Director Darren Aronofsky insisted on having Rourke in the lead in place of the bankable Nicolas Cage.  Rourke's previous bad boy antics on set meant he was almost unemployable in Hollywood for 15 years and Aronofsky's choice caused the film's budget to be slashed by more than $10 million.

But Rourke's help on the music front didn't stop at "Sweet Child O' Mine" - he asked another rock legend, Bruce Springsteen, to write a song for the movie.

"I wrote Bruce Springsteen a letter," Rourke said, "A very personal letter about my character and about me and about how the character and me maybe had some things in common and would you think about writing us a song.

"And he wrote us a very f**kin' beautiful f**kin' song."

As "The Wrestler" is tipped for success in the approaching awards season, it looks like the former bad boy is finally coming in from the cold.