{"id":610056,"date":"2026-04-17T10:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/610056\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:56:10","slug":"michael-jacksons-billion-dollar-biopic-just-dont-mention-sexual-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/610056\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson\u2019s billion-dollar biopic \u2014 just don\u2019t mention sexual abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is the most controversial film of the year. No, not Wuthering Heights<\/a>, with its wild accents and moors, but Michael, the biopic of Michael Jackson, which has been through years of delay to finally open in cinemas this month. The King of Pop is, of course, a tarnished man, who died of a drug overdose in 2009, aged 50, after being dogged for decades by allegations of sexual abuse against children. The film had its world premiere last week in Berlin and, as early reactions flooded in, surely the studio execs would have been nervous about the public reaction to a film about such a divisive icon?<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael is why we go to the movies!\u201d gushed one adoring fan, who clearly thought they had seen a thriller. \u201cOne of the best biopics I\u2019ve ever seen!\u201d whooped another, who believed that nothing could beat it. \u201cThis is the movie we wanted!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Now a caveat. Reviews by critics are embargoed until Tuesday, April 21. These are the clickbait cries of some showboating influencers who are invited to exclusive previews and would very much like to keep being invited to such things. They are there to be nice but, make no mistake, such overwhelmingly positive reactions will be the norm when the world rushes to Michael. In the States the film is set to make well over $80 million in its opening weekend before becoming the first music biopic to break a billion globally, as Jackson\u2019s Spotify numbers grow and everyone forgets about Jordan Chandler, Gavin Arvizo, Wade Robson and James Safechuck<\/a> \u2014 men who accused Jackson of molestation when they were children.<\/p>\n

And, yes, Jackson was never found guilty in court. Although he did like making an out-of-court settlement. Either way, the incoming exuberance will feel extraordinary to some. This year I spoke to Dan Reed, who directed 2019\u2019s powerhouse documentary Leaving Neverland, which delved into claims made against the singer by Robson and Safechuck. \u201cThe baseline,\u201d Reed told me, \u201cis that Jackson spent nights alone with kids.\u201d This has never been refuted by Jackson\u2019s estate. \u201cIt seems likely, on evidence, that he had sex with them but let us say you don\u2019t believe that \u2014 what was never denied is that he spent nights behind closed doors with lots of little boys who were not his. Is that OK?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of the Jackson family \u2014 from left: Michael\u2019s sons, Bigi and Prince Michael Jr, his brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Jermaine\u2019s son, Jermajesty and Randy Jr at the world premiere in Berlin this monthCLEMENS BILAN\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Michael \u2014 the $150 million jukebox musical blockbuster that has been billed by producers as the ultimate family entertainment \u2014 does not deal with any of this. Indeed one insider says that the film ends before any of the difficulties, with one scene showing Jackson buying flowers for ill kids in hospital. What a guy!<\/p>\n

In an early version, the film dealt, somehow, with the story of Chandler before lawyers realised that the $23 million deal struck with that accuser in 1994 banned the use of his story in any Jackson biopic. Reshoots happened and delays occurred, the elephant in the room not so much ignored but removed completely.<\/p>\n

So Michael is like a Gary Glitter biopic that focuses purely on the writing of Hello, Hello I\u2019m Back Again or a film about Kanye West that doesn\u2019t mention Nazis<\/a>. And it seems that some of the family are not delighted. The singer\u2019s sister Janet, for instance, is not in the film at all and was not at the premiere. <\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s 28-year-old daughter Paris, whom he had with his second wife, Debbie Rowe, has been outspoken in her disapproval. An eminently sensible-seeming young woman with a Radiohead tattoo, she said of the film: \u201cI just prefer honesty over sales and monetary gain\u2026 I had 0 per cent involvement in [the film]\u2026 The film panders to a very specific section of my dad\u2019s fandom that still lives in a fantasy. It\u2019s not real. But it\u2019s sold to you as real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MichaelJackson dangled his son Blanket over a balcony in Berlin in 2002Shutterstock Editorial<\/p>\n

She and Janet, though, are lonely voices of disapproval. Last week in Berlin, the city where Jackson dangled his nine-month-old son Blanket out of a hotel window in 2002, the Jackson clan were out in full force. Even Blanket was back \u2014 albeit now called Bigi \u2014 to stand next to his brother Prince and their uncles Jackie, Marlon and Jermaine, all previous members of the Jackson Five. On the red carpet Jermaine was asked about Paris\u2019s reaction to her father\u2019s film, and said: \u201cI stay away from controversial stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essentially, the gamble \u2014 ignore the allegations of paedophilia, just hope people remember how great Man in the Mirror is \u2014 looks set to pay off handsomely. There is a rumoured sequel in the works but nothing suggests that that will do anything but have the possible effect of further exonerating its subject. After all, the man playing Jackson in the film is his nephew, Jaafar Jackson. This is an inside job, the sole aim of which appears to be to increase the next generation\u2019s interest in some fantastic pop songs and rack up royalties for the estate. That was the trick pulled off with Bohemian Rhapsody, a film that not coincidentally shares a producer, Graham King, with Michael.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Resistance to its success is futile. A couple of weeks ago Jaafar was on Jimmy Fallon\u2019s talk show, where the studio audience whooped as a sycophantic Fallon praised his guest and the uncle he plays. \u201cCome on now!\u201d a palpitating Fallon screams after showing a remarkably mediocre clip of Billie Jean from the film, with a look at comments underneath this \u201cinterview\u201d capturing the mood for the majority. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how excited everybody gets just by speaking about Michael \u2014 his magic is eternal,\u201d said one. \u201c1.1m views in under 24 hours \u2014 shows how big this film is going to be,\u201d goes another. \u201cTreat him better than you treated all the Jacksons,\u201d reads a final one, about Jaafar, before adding: \u201cHollywood owes the family the biggest apology. Michael died an innocent man.\u201d
Michael is released on Apr 22 in the UK and Apr 24 in the US<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is the most controversial film of the year. No, not Wuthering Heights, with its wild accents and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-610056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}