OTTAWA -- Local film director Bryan Michael Stoller made his latest screen comedy Miss Cast Away with a little help from a very big friend -- Michael Jackson.

Miss Cast Away, which makes its Canadian premiere this morning at 11 at the Bytowne Cinema, spoofs Miss Congeniality and Castaway as a planeload of beauty contestants crash-land on a deserted island where they discover Noah's ark. Noah has been kidnapped by apes in the style of Planet of the Apes while the ark is guarded by a prehistoric pig called "Jurassic Pork."

It's what Stoller's says, in what has to be the understatement of the year, "a silly movie."

Jackson has an extended cameo as agent M.J. -- spoofing his role form Men In Black II. The film also stars Charlie Schlatter, Eric Roberts, Stuart Pankin and Playboy Playmate Colleen Shannon.

"It's a funny role for him because he plays Agent M.J. but everybody calls him Michael Jackson. He has to keep correcting them. In one scene, a character tells him he bought all his albums. Michael goes out of character and says 'God bless you.' "

Stoller wrote, produced and directed the film independently for $2 million US and shot it in Los Angeles, Hawaii and Jackson's Neverland estate where Jackson also hosted the film's wrap party.

"Michael and I have been friends for a few years," said Stoller, who first came into contact with Jackson when the singer inquired about a young actor who appeared in one of Stoller's productions. "He did this as a favour for our friendship.

"We're also working on another project called They Cage the Animals at Night for Mel Gibson. Michael wanted to direct, so I wrote the screenplay. We were supposed to shoot in Ottawa last November."

That project has been put on hold since Jackson was charged with child molestation.

"Michael loves people emotionally not physically," Stoller said when asked about the King of Pop's legal woes. "I've known him for five years and I've never seen anything out of the ordinary. He has a playful relationship like a big brother. There's nothing sexual at all.

"He's a very responsible father," he added. "That's why the whole thing on the balcony caught me off guard. It's a regrettable situation. The fans were screaming to see the kid, so Michael held the kid up higher and over the edge. He knows it was bad but it was a spur-of-the-moment thing."

As well as the new movie, Stoller has penned Filmmaking for Dummies, a new manual on how to make and market your own film project which includes an introduction by Jackson.