The long-rumored Michael Jackson biopic is formally within the works, with Antoine Fuqua signed on to direct and Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson connected to star. Production is about to start later this yr, and it’s being made in partnership with Jackson’s property.
When The Hollywood Reporter famous that the film was shifting forward, they mentioned distributor Lionsgate advised them that “the film will address all aspects of Jackson’s life” whereas conceding that “it is unclear how the film will address the many controversies involving the late music icon, given that the film is made in conjunction with his estate, which has defended him against accusations of sexually abusing children.”
Dan Reed, the director of the explosive HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, had some sharp criticism for the producers of the movie in a brand new opinion piece printed in The Guardian.
“That gentle raising of eyebrows by the Hollywood Reporter has been pretty typical of the press’s reaction to the announcement of the biopic,” Reed wrote. “In an era when full-throated outrage accompanies anything that smells of delegitimisation or insensitivity against a vulnerable group, it amounts to a deafening silence. No one is talking about ‘cancelling’ this movie, which will glorify a man who raped children.”
“What the total absence of outrage accompanying the announcement of this movie tells us is that Jackson’s seduction is still a living force, operating from beyond the grave,” Reed continued. “It seems that the press, his fans and the vast older demographic who grew up loving Jackson are willing to set aside his unhealthy relationship with children and just go along with the music.”
He continued:
To them I say this: even when you don’t consider a phrase of what his many accusers have mentioned; even if you’re not involved by the police investigations and the huge payouts to halt authorized proceedings, how do you clarify the utterly uncontested incontrovertible fact that for years Jackson spent innumerable nights alone in mattress with younger boys? What was he doing with them, alone in his Neverland bed room, with alarm bells within the hall? That can’t be acceptable by any measure.
To the film-makers, I say: how will you characterize the second when Jackson, a grown man in his 30s, takes a baby by the hand and leads him into that bed room? How will you depict what occurs subsequent? By sidestepping the query of Jackson’s predilection for sleeping with younger boys, you’re broadcasting a message to thousands and thousands of survivors of kid sexual abuse. That message is: if a paedophile is wealthy and widespread sufficient, society will forgive him.
Read the complete opinion piece right here.