The upcoming Michael Jackson movie reportedly does not feature any scenes dealing with the singer’s high-profile child abuse allegations after they were cut from the film, allegedly forcing reshoots that added $15 million to the budget.
Variety said Michael, which sees Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson play the title role, was meant to include a scene in which police arrive at Neverland Ranch to search for evidence of child abuse in 1993, but it does not appear in the final cut.
This is allegedly one of many scenes that were meant to explore this part of Jackson’s life in the third act of the movie, but they were all cut because attorneys for the Jackson estate “realized there was a clause in a settlement with one of the singer’s accusers, Jordan Chandler, that barred the depiction or mention of him in any movie.” Michael Jackson had denied all allegations, and his estate continues to deny the claims.
This sparked $15 million dollars worth of reshoots and a new ending, Variety reported, contributing to a delay to the movie’s release from April last year to this spring. The Jackson estate covered the cost because the error was theirs, Variety said, but it now has an equity stake in the film.
So what happens at the end of Michael as a result? The movie reportedly concludes with a scene set during Jackson’s Bad tour, which ran from 1987 to 1989. There isn’t a single mention of the child abuse allegations at any point in the movie, Variety said. It sounds like it will revolve around the music and Jackson’s troubled relationship with his father, Joe, played by Colman Domingo. But it also allegedly touches on Jackson’s painkiller abuse. Janet Jackson is not in the movie, Variety said.
Michael Jackson’s three children allegedly weren’t involved in the making of the movie. In September last year, Jackson’s daughter, Paris, criticized the “sugar-coated” biopic about her father, saying it “panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy.”
“I read one of the first drafts of the script and gave my notes about what was dishonest / didn’t sit right with me, and when they didn’t address it, I moved on with my life,” Paris said in a social media post. “Not my monkeys, not my circus. God bless and God speed.”
“So I just butted out and left it alone because it’s not my project,” she added. “They’re going to make whatever they’re going to make. A big reason why I haven’t said anything up until this point is because I know a lot of you guys are gonna be happy with it.
“A big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they’re gonna be happy with it.
“The narrative is being controlled and there’s a lot of inaccuracy and there’s a lot of just full-blown lies. At the end of the day, that doesn’t really fly with me. Go enjoy it. Do whatever. Leave me out of it.”
Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.