{"id":500257,"date":"2026-02-24T04:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500257\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T04:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:49:09","slug":"michael-jackson-biopic-director-antoine-fuqua-on-spiritual-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500257\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Biopic Director Antoine Fuqua on “Spiritual Journey”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFilmmaker Antoine Fuqua<\/a> is sharing his perspective about Lionsgate<\/a>\u2018s forthcoming Michael<\/a> Jackson biopic.<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael is set to hit theaters and Imax on April 24 after its release was delayed several times<\/a>, most recently having been dated for the fall of 2025. Marking his feature debut is Jackson\u2019s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the lead role as the pop music<\/a> icon. Lionsgate is distributing the movie domestically, while Universal handles the global launch.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a very spiritual journey, making a movie about someone like Michael,\u201d Fuqua says in a video that Lionsgate released Monday. \u201cMichael was a big influence on my career as a director, seeing how he refused to get put in a box as just a Black artist only.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFuqua\u2019s movie debuted its latest trailer<\/a> earlier this month. Michael co-stars\u00a0Colman Domingo<\/a>\u00a0as the singer\u2019s father, Joe Jackson, and\u00a0Nia Long<\/a>\u00a0as his mother, Katherine. Rounding out the cast are\u00a0Miles Teller, Laura Harrier, Kat Graham, Larenz Tate and Derek Luke. Graham King<\/a>, John Branca and John McClain produce the film that has a script from John Logan.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMichael\u2019s whole life was giving to people this joy of his voice,\u201d Fuqua continues in the video. \u201cWhen I watched him on TV, he was always larger than life. For me as a filmmaker, it wasn\u2019t a leap to see it in a cinematic way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Training Day director adds, \u201cI don\u2019t think you can understand Michael Jackson<\/a> as a human being unless you went back and go on a bit of a journey. He was struggling between his love for his family and his love for his music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in the biopic Michael.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKevin Mazur<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hollywood Reporter\u00a0previously reported that\u00a0Michael<\/a>, initially intended to span the star\u2019s life and have a lengthy run time, had pivoted and would instead end with Jackson leaving his family\u2019s group The Jacksons after the release of his first solo album, 1979\u2019s\u00a0Off the Wall. According to sources, a second film remains in development that would focus on the rest of Jackson\u2019s career and path prior to his 2009 death.<\/p>\n

\n\tPuck\u00a0reported last year that\u00a0Michael\u2019s previously planned third act had to be retooled, due to it including a dramatization of an individual who accused Jackson of child sexual abuse. The accuser had a past settlement with the performer\u2019s estate stipulating that he would never be dramatized.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhy I wanted to make it is Michael,\u201d Fuqua said during a San Diego Comic-Con panel in 2024. \u201cMichael was a big part of my life growing up, a big influence on my career, an incredible artist \u2014 but he was a human being, and we\u2019re exploring that.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filmmaker Antoine Fuqua is sharing his perspective about Lionsgate\u2018s forthcoming Michael Jackson biopic. Michael is set to hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[234348,64,63,130045,134,98164,18030,19927,19928,164524,136,251614],"class_list":{"0":"post-500257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-antoine-fuqua","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-colman-domingo","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-graham-king","14":"tag-lionsgate","15":"tag-michael","16":"tag-michael-jackson","17":"tag-miles-tellar","18":"tag-music","19":"tag-nia-long"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}