Not everyone is thrilled that there’s a biopic being made about pop sensation Michael Jackson. The director of “Leaving Neverland,” the HBO documentary that delves into accusations of Jackson’s alleged child abuse, last month accused director Antoine Fuqua’s film of being “a complete whitewash” and that it aims to “completely rewrite the allegations and dismiss them out of hand.”
However at CinemaCon on Wednesday, “Michael” producer Graham King took the stage to say that the new biopic, currently in production, “will get into all of it.”
King promised “Michael” includes 30 songs and recreations of Jackson’s performances throughout his career but also depictions of “his life outside the public eye, things many people have never seen before.”
“Everyone has an opinion on him,” King said about MJ, acknowledging the blinding accusations that surrounded his career, saying that ultimately the film is a portrait of a “complex” man, that it tries to tell the “untold” story creatively in one “long” feature film, and that he was still “one of the most prolific artists who ever lived.” Lionsgate film chief Adam Fogelson also briefly acknowledged some of the “controversy” that surrounded Jackson in his life.
“There’s biopics, and then there’s Michael Jackson,” King added.
“Leaving Neverland” was a four-hour documentary released on HBO in 2019. The film directed by Dan Reed included detailed testimony from Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck, who both alleged Jackson seduced them away from their normal lives and estranged them from their families, as well as performed sexual acts on them as children. Jackson denied the allegations throughout his career, and Jackson’s estate denied the renewed accusations in the documentary upon its release.
Though “Michael” is only halfway through production, Lionsgate had a full trailer ready for its CinemaCon presentation. The trailer showed Michael alongside the Jackson 5 performing “ABC,” as well as a lengthy look at Jackson at a concert singing, dancing, and Moonwalking along to “Man In the Mirror.”
“When I’m performing, I feel alive. But when I’m not on stage, everything appears foreign to me,” Jackson says in the trailer, which was not released online following the presentation.
MJ is played by his own nephew Jaafar Jackson in his debut role, and he certainly looks and sounds the part in the early look at the footage. We also saw brief looks at co-stars Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson, Nia Long as Katherine Jackson, and Juliano Valdi as the young Michael Jackson. “Michael” also stars Jessica Sula, Miles Teller, Kat Graham, Laura Harrier, and Kendrick Sampson.
John Logan wrote the script for “Michael,” and Antoine Fuqua is directing. Lionsgate has the film dated for release theatrically April 18, 2025.
