{"id":638414,"date":"2026-04-29T12:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/638414\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T12:22:08","slug":"a-false-narrative-around-a-paedophile-michael-jackson-biopic-criticised-by-leaving-neverland-director-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/638414\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A false narrative around a paedophile\u2019: Michael Jackson biopic criticised by Leaving Neverland director | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael, the recently released biopic of Michael Jackson, has been severely criticised by the director of Leaving Neverland, the 2019 documentary that chronicled claims against Jackson of child sexual abuse<\/a> by Wade Robson and James Safechuck.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Variety<\/a>, Dan Reed, who was subject to death threats after Leaving Neverland was released<\/a>, said: \u201cWhat the movie does is creates a version of events that essentially portrays Wade, James and others who\u2019ve accused Jackson of child sexual abuse as liars without actually articulating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by John Logan<\/a>, centres on Jackson\u2019s early years and first steps as a music star, performing with his brothers in the Jackson Five and culminating with his 1988 concert in London after he had gone solo, to enormous success.<\/p>\n

Reed said that he had seen the film and \u201cthere\u2019s zero insight into what makes Jackson tick\u201d, adding: \u201cHe\u2019s this asexual plastic action doll of a figure in the film. And of course, the issue of his relationship with children is completely distorted by the fact that they portray him as an eccentric, overgrown child, which we know is not the full story.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Reed, the film fundamentally fails to tackle Jackson\u2019s predatory relationship with children. \u201cThey\u2019re saying that the reason Jackson liked children is because he\u2019s an angel and just wanted to be nice to children, not that he wanted to have sex with them \u2026 Why are they dancing around this? It\u2019s well-known that Jackson spent a long time with small-boy companions, including taking them into his bed at night and locking the door, which is undisputed \u2013 and that alone, if someone made a claim, is probably enough to convict him in a court of child sexual abuse \u2013 but with Jackson, none of this stuff seems to matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with the New Yorker<\/a>, Fuqua cast doubt on Jackson\u2019s accusers and suggested some of the rhetoric around the controversy was borne of racism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I hear things about us \u2013 Black people in particular, especially in a certain position \u2013 there\u2019s always pause,\u201d said Fuqua, before suggesting a double standard was in play by mentioning that Elvis Presley met his future wife, Priscilla, when she was 14.<\/p>\n

The director further questioned the motives behind some of the allegations, and added: \u201csometimes people do some nasty things for some money\u201d. Reed rebutted his remark, calling Fuqua \u201csomeone who\u2019s made tens of millions pushing a false narrative around a man who\u2019s a paedophile, that\u2019s a nasty thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAnd as far as the money goes, [director] Antoine Fuqua reportedly earned $25m for making Michael<\/a>. Obviously, the [Jackson] estate is going to make a huge amount of money. Everyone\u2019s going to make money except \u2013 guess who? \u2013 Wade and James. They\u2019ve never made a penny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael was released on Friday to record box office figures for a biopic<\/a> in the US and UK, grossing $217m (\u00a3161m) worldwide.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s daughter Paris publicly criticised the film\u2019s script in September, denying that she was involved and saying<\/a>: \u201cA big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad\u2019s fandom that still lives in the fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reed said: \u201cThe film just flips the truth on its head \u2013 black is white, white is black, and two and two make five \u2026 it\u2019s a movie that\u2019s impossible to take seriously.\u201d Reed added: \u201cHe\u2019s become part of the collective imagination, and the collective imagination can never include the fact that he\u2019s a pedophile.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael, the recently released biopic of Michael Jackson, has been severely criticised by the director of Leaving Neverland,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-638414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638414","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=638414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}