NEW YORK, Mar 2, 2002/ --- Michael Jackson may have nixed performance plans at the Grammy Awards, but he's got bigger, better gigs simmering on the back-burner: The gloved one is getting into the film business.

Jacko's Neverland Entertainment has invested somewhere between $15 and $20 million in MDP Worldwide, a Canadian production and distribution company owned by Mark Damon, the producer of an array of films, from "9 1/2 Weeks" to "Short Circuit" to "The Musketeer."

As part of the deal, MDP will operate a new division, Neverland Pictures, which will be headed by Jackson, his producing partner Raju Patel (the man behind youth-friendly films like "The Jungle Book" and "The Adventures of Pinocchio") and executive Lawrence Mortoff.

At Damon's Hollywood Hills' home Sunday, Jackson, accompanied, of course, by Elizabeth Taylor, told a room full of international buyers and executives that, "[With] film, you live with the protagonist, you suffer with the protagonist, you laugh with the protagonist, you despair with the protagonist. It's the most artistic, influential medium of all... I have a lot to express in film. I'll be doing the whole thing, behind and in front (of the camera).... I promise you wonderful and fantastical things to come."

And not only could that vow include Jackson-directed projects, but it seems Taylor wants a crack at the chair, as well.

"I wanted to direct for quite a while," Taylor stated in an interview. "I've observed and picked up so much from other directors and other actors. I'd like to take the knowledge I've learned from them and have a go at it."

So, what's the first Neverland Pictures project? A disturbing film focusing on a 15-year-old boy who murders an autistic child. "The United States of Leland," starring Don Cheadle, Chris Klein, and Kevin Spacey starts filming later this month.