Here comes the first big Michael Jackson biopic: Antoine Fuqua directing, John Logan scripting, Graham King producing

"With Carol Bayer Sager as Dame Elizabeth Taylor"

*Carole*

Is that show still running on Broadway?

Thanks I looked it up myself.....yup still there.....selling tickets through September, 2023.

DL’s new favorite movie.

It’s just completely disgusting in every conceivable way that Michael Jackson remains a figure that people are making Broadway shows and movies about. He raped little boys for decades. It’s unreal this country refuses to come to terms with that.

Lucy wants to, but I hear Gary is planning on talking her out of it.

His music post Thriller was pretty goofy for the most part especially songs like "Childhood" and that cringeworthy video with Lisa Marie.

[bold]Unbelievable[/bold]. Jackson was a serious drug addict and long-term paedophile who raped young boys for decades and destroyed their lives. Everyone in the industry knew about it. The entire Jackson family was complicit in hiding Jackson's paedophilia so it wouldn't affect the money rolling in. I assume that's what this film will be about.

Zac Efron IS Wade Robson

Thank you r9. I couldn't agree more.

This freak is best left dead and buried.

I think he had a case of arrested development and only felt comfortable around kids but I'm not sure if it it was sexual. IMO Michael was deeply disturbed because of the physical and mental abuse he suffered at the hands of his father and his brothers. He was gay. Deeply closeted Gay. I resent that in the popular mind, pedophilia is often linked with being Gay when in fact we are most often the victims not the perps.

He was a goddamn fucking paedophile who raped little boys R12. He wasn't gay. You're the one linking paedophilia with homosexuality.

There is far too much evidence to suggest he wasn't a paedophile so just stop lying.

This film will go down like a lead balloon.

If they're smart it will only focus on his early life. Not sure how you can go into the 90s or beyond without getting into some really messy territory....if you ignore the abuse or portray him as a falsely accused saint, you're going to look like you're whitewashing. If you portray him as guilty, you'll piss off the fanboys and fangirls, and, let's face it, those people are the ones who are most likely to go see this.

Plus, how do you find an actor who looks the way Michael looked after 1995 or so?

The executors of Jackson’s estate are attached as producers, which means that this will be hagiographic garbage. Expect a passing treatment of MJ’s “controversies” and “complexities” with a big, flashy finish to reassure viewers that his superstar legacy lives on. (Just like “Bohemian Rhapsody”, an overrated work of PR fiction that attempts to rewrite the history of Freddie Mercury’s sexuality and AIDS diagnosis.)

I seriously doubt that this film will even be made.

Maybe Stockard Channing could play Taylor.

[quote] I think he had a case of arrested development and only felt comfortable around kids but I'm not sure if it it was sexual.

I thought that, too, R12. I grew up listening to the Jackson 5 and it was hard to reconcile that with what happened later.

He's actually never been criminally convicted of sexual assault. He has paid out huge settlements (civil).

His interviews and insistence on having little boys sleep in his bed are persuasive to me.

He was hiding in plain sight. Taking little boys to awards shows. Neverland. There's too much evidence. If he were anyone else, you'd say he was definitely a pedophile. I'm not even sure you'd call him a hebephile because his interest seemed to be in pre-pubescent boys. Bryan Singer was a hebephile.

Billie Jean is not my lover.

Tee hee.

So will there be one actor for when he was black and one for when he was white?

Well, it's obvious that Lindsay Lohan will reprise her role...But who's gonna play DIANA ROSS?!

[quote] I think he had a case of arrested development

Okay, that checks out.

[quote] and only felt comfortable around kids

Okay, kind of but not really.

[quote] but I'm not sure if it it was sexual.

It was sexual you idiot, stop posting like a dumb rube. He fucked those kids - he raped them and everybody knows he raped them. Innocent fun does not require that one installs special alarm systems for when the staff approached the bedroom where he was raping the children - end of discussion. He should have gone to prison for the rest of his life and the kids he raped should have gotten all of his money.

This piece of shit movie is made with the cooperation of Jackson's estate. It will be filled with lies and never confront the truth about Michael Jackson. He was a monster.

They should get the team who did Voldemort's makeup to do Jackson's in the movie.

No children were harmed in the making of this Motion Picture

We've had sufficient!

No more biopics about dead 80s superstars.

[R3] "MJ" has become one of the biggest hits on Broadway, thanks to the tourists who are flocking to see it. I believe it already recouped it's investment. The musical does not go into the years when he was accused of child molesting and arrested - it ends right before it.

As for who will play Liz Taylor, it has to be the eternally youthful Joan Collins. Who else ? And Ariana DeBose can play Miss Ross.

[quote]Here comes the first big Michael Jackson biopic

Gurl please, this is not the first. This movie will be some bullshit.

NOTHING can top the legendary performance from Ms. Angela Bassett as Katherine in the 1992 TV series. With Vanessa Williams and Billy Dee Williams. They need to just cancel this mess

Will there be boys showing hole to MJ in it?

What’s with John Logan—the whitest white gay who ever whites? He writes high-aiming plays for the stage (“Never the Sinner,” “Hauptmann” ( written for Denis O’Hare when both were students or recent grades of Northwestern), and “”Red”), then writes dreck scripts for big movies (yes, I know he got Oscar nominations for “Gladiator “ and “The Last Samurai,” but neither film was notable for its script)—and now this?

[quote] What’s with John Logan

He enjoys money.

Michael Jackson was a textbook case of a pedophile, albeit on a very grand scale. He had all the typical behaviors of a pedophile. People were so blinded by his fame and celebrity they refused to believe it, but he was a pedophile.

If there was a 40 year-old man who lived on your street who had a children's amusement park in his backyard and who invited all the little boys in the neighborhood to his house for sleepovers how fast do you think the parents of all those boys would be calling the fucking police? How could you even think that man's actions were normal behavior and not something deeply sinister?

What did the mom say to Michael Jackson at the beach?

Get out of my son

What did Michael Jackson and pimples have in common?

They both came all over your face at age twelve.

[quote]Not sure how you can go into the 90s or beyond without getting into some really messy territory....

r14 MJ was mess in the 80s too; he just couldn't hide it anymore when the 90s rolled around. By most accounts, MJ's issues really took a turn for the worse when he was burned in 1984. He totally spiraled into despair after that. That's when he started excessive drug use and surgery to alter his appearance. And he was already anorexic for years before than too.

In any event, Michael Jackson's life, ascent with his brothers, relationships with Joseph and family members, solo success, and long demise is way too eventful to fit into a 2 hour movie. That is why his story has primarily been told in mini-series format, to date.

EXACTLY R30.

[quote] way too eventful to fit into a 2 hour movie

I'm missing the days when something *could* be told in 2 hours. With the advent of Netflix, every story must take 9 hours to be told.

Who will play Elizabeth Taylor?

The musical on Bway is a big hit. Nobody cares he was a pedo freak—and the musical doesn’t address it beyond a couple cursory sentences.

Agree r6, but we're in the minority on that, I'm afraid. His fans don't care that he raped little boys. That's where we're at in society right now, millions of people saying "I want what I want, and I want to listen to Michael Jackson without guilt, so fuck all those boys that got raped, they're liars or deserved it anyway or something."

I saw the MJ musical and while the singing and dancing were good the way they made MJ into some angelic saint that could do no wrong was hilarious.

Hacking his nose to pieces? - "Everyone in Hollywood gets a nose job!" Skin bleaching? - "He had a skin condition! He LOVED being a black man!" Hanging out with little boys? - "He missed his childhood! The media is being mean to him!"

It was a such a joke and so fake!

Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (Welcome Back Kotter) played patriarch Joe Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream.

He's aged well over the years. Maybe there's a part for him in any new movie about the Jacksons.

r38 like I say in most threads about people like Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, ie pop stars, their work is a culmination of a many talented people coming together to make them what they are, its not just about the person singing or dancing. They are there to deliver the product and Michael Jackson happened to be the best at it. Whitney Houston was as well.

Michael Jackson had a ton of brilliant people like Berry Gordy, Quincy Jones, John Landis, Diana Ross, etc shaping his career and music into what it was. Michael Jackson alone was not responsible for the music that people still listen to. And besides that he's long dead so not listening to the catalog isnt doing anything.

[quote] Michael Jackson was a textbook case of a pedophile

Yes and no. They didn’t find cp at his home aside from an art book and pedophiles usually can’t stop. There weren’t THAT many alleged victims. With all those kids there, there should have been thousands. Who knows, maybe he headed to the Middle East to diddle them there.

There are no Michael Jackson fans who are fans of everyone who made him who he is, r41. They love Michael for being Michael, and part of their fandom means defending him and trashing his victims.

Some of you are frothing at the mouth in anger about his alleged paedophilia.. give it a rest; nobody truly cares.

I'm sure there's a very good reason why "MJ: The Musical" did not go near his child molestation charges, and the reason is financial...

Do you know how many millions of dollars it would cost to cast hundreds of young boys to be on stage to give a 'realistic account' of what he did ? And to comply with child labor laws ???

Telling the story and leaving out the part about boy fucking is like making a movie about the Titanic and ending it on the Sunday morning BEFORE it hit the iceberg.

Happy ending!

Proposed title for this film is "Michael Jackson: I Wanna Dance With Some Children"

The little boys in his life — will they be played by real children, or will they be CGI animated?

R44 is a fangirl. Honey, most people know who he really was

And what he really was

A lot of people believe MJ is innocent. Hence the success of the Broadway musical and his streaming numbers remaining intact.

Jasmine Guy IS MJ

"Hence the success of the Broadway musical and his streaming numbers remaining intact."

Some of those people may genuinely believe he's innocent.....but I bet a lot of others know damn well what he did, they just don't care because they like his music

r43 you don't WANT there to be Michael Jackson fans who are fans of everyone who made him who he is. Just because you say that doesn't make it so, of course you know this.

I'm fan of all Rod Temperton's and Quincy Jones' work from the late 70s and 80s; Michael Jackson was just one of many artists who delivered their hits really well. Chaka Khan and Rufus are my favorite. I also enjoy the later New Jack Swing era that Teddy Riley ushered Michael Jackson and other artists into.

I don't give a shit about Michael Jackson's personal life at all, I listen to music for music.

[quote]Some of you are frothing at the mouth in anger about his alleged paedophilia.. give it a rest; nobody truly cares.

You're dead wrong R44. Normal people truly care deeply about paedophilia and aren't about to sweep his decades of paedophilia under the carpet and pretend just to placate you. You sound like a [bold]real[/bold] cunt.

[quote]Some of those people may genuinely believe he's innocent.....but I bet a lot of others know damn well what he did, they just don't care because they like his music

It seems like the general public is less concerned and/or outraged when boys are abused than when women and girls are. Add time and "superstar" to the situation and it ends up not mattering at all as long as there's more money to be made.

Have people forgotten that he’s a likely child molester? What’s next a Gary Glitter biopic?

Another vile detail of this celebrated person...some of the kids he preyed on were terminally ill or disabled.

[quote]So will there be one actor for when he was black and one for when he was white?

Yes, and they will both be trans women of color, which will be stunning and brave!

Woody Allen is more or less canceled especially after that HBO documentary about him, but the same hasn’t happened to MJ. His supporters outweigh the people who believe he’s guilty.

R30 And he always blamed the victim. “They want to hold my hand!”, “they want to sleep in my bed!”, etc etc he’s literally said both of those things.

The problem is it’s way too hard to pull off white Michael Jackson. He looked weird and ridiculing and it’s always been hard for actors to get the makeup and look right. And then to play a dramatic role or something lol.

They should stop at “Thriller” but I guess they already did that with “American Dream”.

The reason people give MJ the benefit of doubt is because he was abused by his father and didn’t have a normal childhood. Some think he was just deeply emotionally stunted.

This site hates Michael but worships Liz Taylor who defended him until the day she died.

R63 See here

I think it's weird that someone like r53 is pretending like they're the most moral and ethical person on here because they don't care that Michael Jackson raped little boys.

Okay hold the fuck up, the guy who said this

[quote]I don't give a shit about Michael Jackson's personal life at all

Also posted this

[quote]By most accounts, MJ's issues really took a turn for the worse when he was burned in 1984. He totally spiraled into despair after that. That's when he started excessive drug use and surgery to alter his appearance. And he was already anorexic for years before than too.

[quote]In any event, Michael Jackson's life, ascent with his brothers, relationships with Joseph and family members, solo success, and long demise is way too eventful to fit into a 2 hour movie. That is why his story has primarily been told in mini-series format, to date.

You sure know a hell of a lot about his personal life for not caring about his personal life.

It's pretty obvious that you're either pretending to be a huge MJ stan to get a rise out of people, or you really are one, and your self-proclaimed ethical consumer of music act is just you trying to defend a pedo.

Nothing will come close to the brilliant “Man in the Mirror” movie. I’ve watched it at least 100 times on YouTube.

Instead of a biopic, they should do a movie on why MJ developed such an intense and insane fanbase.

Because it’s supported by his estate it will lipgloss over all his MANY sexual relationships with boy minors. Everything that comes out of the Jackson family is a lie.

In the Martin Bashir interview way back when, Jackson talked about how sharing one's bed with someone is the most loving act one can do, and he said it as if this was common knowledge and he was just being a kind host when he had little boys sleep in his bed with him. (Sure, it's a nice gesture to offer a guest your bedroom instead of the couch - usually when it's someone you know really well like a parent, sibling or best friend - but you don't sleep in the damn bed them. And, to state the obvious, no one in his/her right mind would ever think it's okay to share a bed with someone else's kid.

Maybe he has a low IQ and was too dumb to realize he was failing miserably in his attempt to manipulate the interviewer and audiences outside of his (unfortunately wide) circle of fandom. That interview was so brain-cell-losing obnoxious.

^ don't sleep in the bed *with* them

That always sickened me R68. They all knew. You can tell in their eyes when they're asked about it. Repulsive.

Yes, I know we all hate Madonna with the heat of a trillion suns - but here's the thing... She briefly met and appeared "on a date" with Jackson for a PR stunt in the early nineties and then shortly afterwards Madonna must have been informed or found out what was going on with the him and all the young boys. On realization, Madonna refused to have anything whatsoever to do with Jackson again. And she never did. I think to her credit.

Spot on R70. He was clinically insane by that time.

Sorry I meant "That always sickened me R63. They all knew. You can tell in their eyes when they're asked about it. Repulsive".

Michael was completely out of touch with the world and society and his father was probably the only person he ever knew that said no to him.

I think Michael was trying to portray this image he has of himself in his head and he came off very weird and bizarre. And while he was naturally weird and bizarre, it’s like he was emphasizing it more when he tried to appear “kind and cultured” and it was just a failure.

The truth is he was not a nice person. Janet admitted he was mean to her recently and you can find any candid interview of him and he’s an asshole There’s video of him being mean to LaToya to her face calling her an idiot and irritating. Even the private videos of him with his children, he came off constantly frustrated by them.

And then you have the celebrities friends - all the black rappers who want to convince the world Michael was a “player” and loved women. LOL.

And someone said Michael was a closeted gay.

I don’t think Michael was gay at all. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he was a homophobe.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Oh yeah, Debbie Rowe. What kind of human being gets deliberately knocked up to create life for crazy Michael Jackson to raise...all by himself. The daughter is obviously hers biologically, yet she was happily willing to just hand her infant over to Michael and never see her again. Wack job.

Lots and lots of money R78. She was probably also one of those fans that R68 was talking about.

I just feel sorry for Blanket.

I wonder what they call him for short?

No one really cares about pedophilia/rape if it involves someone they like.

[quote]I just feel sorry for Blanket. I wonder what they call him for short?

“Throw,” maybe.

Maybe Duvet.

Blanket goes by "Bigi," the last we knew.

What a bizarre life. Are there any good objective biographies of him in book form yet, or is it all still whitewash for fear of the family/estate?

R85 The podcast the Telephone Stories is about the allegations against him and it’s really good.

R78 She was 100% a surrogate. Her role was to marry Michael Jackson while pregnant, divorce when he was done, and the settlement was to take care of her.

Debbie Rowe has even worse taste in husbands than Lisa Marie

Great interview. She lied through her teeth. Making shit up on the spot, shaking her head the entire time with every answer (an indication of a lie).

MJ IS CAST!

I like a lot of Fuqua's work. I have no idea how this could play out. It could be straight fluff and anything "edgy" might only focus on Michael's mutilation of his looks. I don't see any sort of substantive exploration of the child abuse allegations. I can see them shooting a scene at Neverland and showing Jackson with children - at least acknowledging the context that led to the allegations and subsequent litigation. But I wouldn't expect them to go deep. His early family life, music career and megastardom is interesting to me alone, but can/should it be divorced from all the dark stuff?

Jafaar does sound very much like MJ

This whole project will end in tears.

Will they make a biopic about notorious paedophile Jimmy Savile next?

I don't think it will end in tears. I think it will do well. Obviously if MJ's family is involved, it's gonna be music-focused and the child stuff will won't be in there. Is that somehow wrong and telling an incomplete story and glossing over serious stuff. Yes. But I still think it could do well. He has a lot of fans who don't care about any of that and will double down on "he wasn't convicted of anything" if they even care to consider it at all.

I'd bet real money that the movie climaxes with the time he was burned while making a Pepsi commercial, and the happy ending is him performing again, because that way they can ignore the drug addiction that developed after the burning and all the issues with the little boys. There was also some family drama going on around that era, a Jackson 5 reunion and breakup and I forget whatall, because apparently Joe and the family were angry that Michael was making all this money without their get a cut, so they blackmailed him into a reunion or album or tour.

If the Jackson family is calling the shots for this mess then the movie will probably end with a family reconciliation, but it'd be more honest and enjoyable to show him ending his relationship with a bunch of abusive trolls for good at the end. Not that this movie is going to have any truth in it at all.

R6, he literally didn't do anything like that. You must be naive and delusional.

To what extent will the pedophilia and body dysphoria be downplayed?

In case the movie glosses over it…

Repulsive paedophile deniers like R96 are almost as bad as Michael Jackson the paedophile offender.

You should be ashamed of yourself R96. You're a terrible, terrible, terrible person.

Pedophile deniers are responsible for little kids continuing to be abused. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.

The biggest question: who will play Bubbles?

This song had the lyrics “When M&M was just a snack and Michael Jackson's skin was black…” but they had to change the line because he just died. Lol

MJ was a brilliant icon who loved all kinds.

ALL kinds.

All kinders

Who will play all the little boys who were repeatedly raped and had their lives destroyed by Jackson?

[quote]MJ IS CAST!

Looks like Jafaar's mom has children with both Randy and Jermaine Jackson. And she's an accomplice in naming a child Jermajesty. Wow.

‘Leaving Neverland’ Director Condemns New Michael Jackson Biopic

The film won't glorify him any more than he already is.

He abused kids, but he never was convicted of anything, so a huge portion of his fan base ignore it or don't believe it and continue to celebrate the musical legacy. The sides are dug in and no posthumous projects - short of revealing video footage of him abusing children - are going to change whether people (1) think he's a monster, (2) sort of know he's a monster but don't care, and (3) think he's innocent.

I agree r109, its no different than most biopics especially about artists that are dead, people already have their own opinions and a movie isn't going to change anything. I also have said this here, most people don't follow pop culture like we do here (on dated gay message board of all places!). America and the world at large are totally indifferent about a biopic being made about an 80s pop star. My nieces and nephews are in their 20s, barely know dead stars like Prince, Whitney and Michael. And most people just don't care anymore.

Here's the full article by the Finding Neverland director referenced in deadline at R108. (I stopped reading the comments on deadline after the first few. The world of Jackson fandom seems a dumb and very weird place.) Anyway, the director's essay is important and so well said. An excerpt:

"What had motivated me – and Robson and Safechuck even more so – to embark on making Leaving Neverland was not just the opportunity to expose Jackson by having his victims speak on camera for the first time. Here was an opportunity to bring to the widest possible audience an insight into how children fall victim to any sexual abuser, the psychology of the predator and, above all, the grooming process. Maybe we could help prevent young children from falling prey to this most scarring, crippling of crimes. Of course the fact that the child molester in this case was one of the world’s most famous men meant that a lot of people would watch. Setting fire to Jackson’s reputation, already charred around the edges by multiple allegations and payments of hush money, was not the primary goal of the documentary. But it seemed like a necessary collateral impact: if you know that your idol has abused children, should that not make celebrating his personality a little more problematic, to say the least?"

Imagine being one of his victims (and families) and knowing this whitewash was going to be made about a notorious paedophile who was almost identical to Jimmy Savile.

Trailer

Trailer 2. Jaafar has the Jackson (original) nose, so either he had surgery to get Michael's pixie nose- or he's wearing prosthetics.