Michael Jackson Film ‘Thrown into Chaos’ Ahead of Planned Release Date

One of Michael Jackson’s accusers is the reason the highly-anticipated biopic will be delayed 6 months.

The film reportedly ran into trouble over the plot, which is said to depict allegations the singer’s estate have been banned from dramatising.

It was announced in January last year that Michael, directed by Training Day’s Antoine Fuqua and starring the late king of pop’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the lead role, would be released in October 2025.

However, a new report claims the film, one of the year’s most anticipated, will be delayed due to its portrayal of the case of then-13-year-old Jordan Chandler.

In 1993, Chandler made headlines around the world when he testified in court documents that Jackson had engaged in “sexual offensive contacts”. Jackson settled with the Chandlers out of court for a reported total sum of $23m – he was never charged over the allegations.

Puck co-founder and journalist Matthew Belloni reports that the film’s third act, in particular, “hinges specifically on the impact of the Chandler circus” – and suggests the ending will have to be re-scripter and re-shot.

Belloni said: “In the script I read – which I’m told was close to final, but obviously these things are often revised – a tense sequence involves Branca (Teller), Johnnie Cochran (Derek Luke), and other Jackson lawyers discussing whether to pay off Chandler and his family.”

“At one point, the lawyers play the infamous recording, submitted in court, of Jordan’s father threatening to leverage his son’s accusations to ‘destroy’ his ex-wife and Jackson’s career.

“The ensuing scenes dramatise the extensive police investigation, including a ‘traumatising’ strip search of Michael that scars him for life”.

The problem, he reported, is that the Jackson team allegedly signed an agreement that prohibits them from ever dramatising the Chandler family or their story, which would render much of the storyline and “several key scenes” unusable”.

Belloni claims that the revelation was only made after shooting had wrapped on the project, which has a rumoured budget of around $150m. The issue is reportedly threatening to scupper the project entirely if Universal decides to bail instead of signing off on necessary but costly reshoots, Puck claims.

However, he added that his sources are “confident” and “hopeful” that the issues will be resolved ahead of the October release date.

The Independent has contacted representatives for the Michael Jackson Estate, Universal, Fuqua and King for comment.

The movie is based on a script by John Logan, behind films including Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, and the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre.

Fuqua said in an interview last year that the film would “tell the facts as we know it, about the artist, about the man, about the human being. You know, the good, bad, and the ugly.”

Graham King (Bohemian Rhapsody) is co-producing with John Branca and John McClain, executors of the Michael Jackson Estate.

In a previous interview, Fuqua said that 27-year-old Jaafar, who is the son of the “Thriller” star’s brother and Jackson 5 bandmate Jermaine Jackson, was the stand-out choice to play his uncle.

“It’s uncanny how much he’s like Michael,” he said. “Sounds like him, dances like him, sings. It’s really uncanny. [King], who is a fantastic producer, found him, and introduced him to me, and I was blown away.”

Other cast members for Michael include Colman Domingo as Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson, Nia Long as his mother Katherine Jackson, and Miles Teller as Branca.

In March, Dan Reed, the director behind the Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland, called out the creators behind Michael for allegedly ignoring the abuse accusations against him.

He claimed to have seen a draft script for Furqua’s forthcoming film and called it a “complete whitewash”.

The Jackson Estate vehemently denies the claims that the singer sexually abused young boys and the allegations were never proven in court; Jackson was acquitted of child molestation in 2005.

It sued HBO over Leaving Neverland in 2019 following its release , arguing that the network violated a non-disparagement clause. The case is still going through the courts; the estate unsuccessfully subpoenaed Reed for his footage.

In August, the estate’s $600m sale of a portion of Jackson’s songs to Sony Music was approved by a Los Angeles appeals court, in spite of his mother Katherine’s objections.

via: The Independent

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