All posts tagged: Leaving Neverland

Michael Jackson biopic will never acknowledge his alleged abuse, says Leaving Neverland director | Hollywood News

Michael Jackson biopic will never acknowledge his alleged abuse, says Leaving Neverland director | Hollywood News

Antoine Fuqua’s musical biopic Michael, starring Jafar Jackson as his uncle and legendary popstar Michael Jackson, may have earned over $219 million at the worldwide box office over its opening weekend. But its sanitized interpretation hasn’t gone down well with Dan Reed, who directed the 2019 documentary, Leaving Neverland, which depicted the detailed allegations of sexual assault against Jackson. “It suggests that Jackson’s engagement with children was entirely benign and motivated by nothing but philanthropy. Jeffrey Epstein was a great philanthropist, and Harvey Weinstein was a great filmmaker, but there’s unfortunately another dimension to their stories,” said Reed, equating Jackson to the the late disgraced financier and the film producer convicted of sexual assault after the MeToo movement respectively. Michael shows several scenes in which Jackson is seen engaging with children, and even donating huge sums to those in need. But Reed claimed that this selective depiction made him feel “icky”. “They’re saying that the reason Jackson liked children is because he’s an angel and just wanted to be nice to children, not that he …

Leaving Neverland director slams Michael for whitewashing Michael Jackson’s alleged abuse: ‘A false narrative’

Leaving Neverland director slams Michael for whitewashing Michael Jackson’s alleged abuse: ‘A false narrative’

Emmy-winning filmmaker Dan Reed, who made Leaving Neverland documenting the alleged sexual-abuse allegations against Michael Jackson, has come forward to slam Michael, the biopic of pop superstar, claiming it promotes a “false narrative.” He argued that the film turns the truth “on its head” in its portrayal of the late singer. In India, Michael has made ₹21.15 crore till now. Dan Reed slams Michael In an interview with Variety, Dan Reed spoke about the biopic, which stars Michael’s nephew Jaafar Jackson in the lead role. He feels 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”. Talking about the scenes of the pop star with children visiting sick kids in the cancer ward of a hospital, the filmmaker said, “That made me feel really icky. It suggests that Jackson’s engagement with children was entirely benign and motivated by nothing but philanthropy… I’m not calling for Jackson to be “canceled” and for nobody to listen …

Why Sandeep Reddy Vanga believes a Michael Jackson biopic is ‘tricky’ to get right: The casting and controversy problem | Telugu News

Why Sandeep Reddy Vanga believes a Michael Jackson biopic is ‘tricky’ to get right: The casting and controversy problem | Telugu News

3 min readHyderabadUpdated: Apr 24, 2026 01:12 AM IST Before Antoine Fuqua made Michael, before Jaafar Jackson put on the white glove, Sandeep Reddy Vanga was already thinking about what a Michael Jackson biopic would cost a filmmaker: creatively, morally, and practically. In one of his interviews, Vanga was asked which real person he would most want to make a film about. His answer was Michael Jackson. And then he spent a few minutes explaining exactly why that film would be nearly impossible to get right. Sandeep Reddy Vanga, the director behind Arjun Reddy, Kabir Singh and Animal, did not hesitate when the question came up. Jackson’s life, he said, had everything a filmmaker could want. The childhood, the transformation, the spectacle, the tragedy. What he was less certain about was who could play him. Vanga said, “It is a very interesting life, you know, Michael Jackson’s life right from his childhood, when he was singing in school, and how he changed his skin color and all that, what he has been through, it’s a …

Michael Jackson biopic had reshoots of  million to remove accusations against the ‘Thriller’ singer; eyes  million in opening weekend | Hollywood News

Michael Jackson biopic had reshoots of $15 million to remove accusations against the ‘Thriller’ singer; eyes $55 million in opening weekend | Hollywood News

The upcoming Hollywood film Michael, based on the life of Michael Jackson, has been in the making for a couple of years now, as principal photography wrapped in May 2024. But, in the months after this, the film’s third act was entirely written, and now, the film does not mention any details about the child molestation accusations that Michael was subjected to for the last decade of his career. This, the production claims, was an oversight by the attorneys of the Jackson estate. What followed was one of the more expensive course corrections in recent Hollywood memory: a complete rebuild of the film’s final act, 22 days of additional photography, a bill of up to $15 million, and a release date that moved not once but twice. Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Michael Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson, opens in the United States on April 24, 2026. The story of how it got there is almost as complicated as its subject. The legal clause that changed everything The original version of Michael was built …