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 wanted to have sex with them,” the filmmaker told Variety, talking about the alleged abuse.
Michael initially intended as a counter to Leaving Neverland
He claimed that Michael was initially planned as a counter to Leaving Neverland, but the makers couldn’t come up with a “plausible narrative” to begin with, thus turning the film into a “jukebox movie”. “The film just flips the truth on its head — black is white, white is black, and two and two make five — and none of the people who go and see the movie will ever question that, but it’s a movie that’s impossible to take seriously as a counter-narrative to Leaving Neverland,” said Reed.
Reed dismissed Michael’s primary argument that Jackson was robbed of his own childhood by a domineering father as a shield to protect his actions. “To claim that because he had a difficult childhood he therefore needed to spend the night alone with a 7-year-old boy in his bed just doesn’t stack up, does it?,” asked the filmmaker.
Michael Jackson like religion, allegations like blasphemy
He argued that the myth of Jackson is so humungous that it has no place for any degree of soiled reputation. “The collective imagination can never include the fact that he’s a pedophile. It’s just not possible. You can’t say, God, that guy liked to have sex with children, but isn’t his music great? That’s not a narrative people can hold in their minds,” said Reed, adding that admitting to Jackson’s alleged acts would equate to the audience robbing themselves of their own childhoods.
“To the culture, Jackson is like a religion. So, what I’ve done is essentially blaspheme, and this biopic reinstates the myth,” said Reed. He slammed Michael as not just a whitewashing tool, but also a moneymaking machine. “Everyone’s going to make money except — guess who? — Wade and James. They’ve never made a penny. They didn’t make a penny from my film, and they haven’t made a penny from anything else associated with Jackson,” he added.
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Reed further countered the makers’ argument that while Michael initially acknowledged the allegations against Jackson, it had to undergo reshoots because of a settlement clause with an accuser that they can’t be mentioned in any film or TV projects. He argued that the two accusers he told the stories of in Leaving Neverland never made a settlement with Jackson or his estate. In fact, the makers conveniently choose to end the film in 1998, five years before the new allegations surfaced in 2003.
Should Michael Jackson be cancelled?
The filmmaker clarified that he doesn’t want people to “cancel” Jackson, but just wants the accusers’ stories to be respected as well. He alleged that Michael labels them as “liars without actually articulating it”. “Someone that was that abusive to children in plain sight doesn’t deserve to be celebrated as a human being. You can celebrate their music, fine, but he was not a human being worth celebrating,” said Reed.
Michael Jackson’s history of alleged abuse
Jackson was first accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 1993. However, the case never went to trial because of lack of evidence and the accuser’s testimony. Jackson denied the allegations and paid him $23 million as part of settlement. He made another settlement of $2 million with Jason Francia, the mother of another boy, to prevent another trial.
Jackson was criminally tried for sexual abuse for the first time in 2005 after a host of allegations surfaced after Julie Shaw’s 2003 television documentary Living with Michael Jackson. He was accused on seven counts of child molestation and two counts of intoxicating a minor with alcohol. Jackson, however was acquitted of all charges in 2005. He also put out a rebuttal video, The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant To See, which included the footage omitted by British journalist Martin Bashir who interviewed Jackson for the documentary.
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More allegations surfaced in 2013 and 2014 when two accusers claimed Jackson abused them when they were kids. While one claimed abuse over seven years, the other was allegedly abused over four years, starting when they were 10 years old. Both the accusers had, however, denied Jackson molested them back in 1993 when the allegations first surfaced against the popstar.
Although both of them were minors then, one of them reiterated their claim in 2005 when they were a young adult. Owing to this discrepancy and some technical loopholes, their cases were repeatedly dismissed across various courts over the years. It was in 2023 that an appellate court overturned those decisions and allowed both cases to go to trial. Safechuck v. MJJ Productions, their combined lawsuit, will head to trial in November this year, where they’ve demanded $400 million in damages from the Michael Jackson estate, 27 years after his death.
About Leaving Neverland
Leaving Neverland seemingly had a huge role to play in the allegations against Jackson finding a new lease of life, prompting an impending fair trial. Reed, who spoke to both the accusers at length, corroborated their claims and premiered the documentary first at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary later premiered on HBO.
However, as of now, Leaving Neverland is not available on the platform, given HBO’s settlement deal with Jackson’s estate. But with the distribution rights going back to Reed in 2029, he’s determined to look for a new platform. He’s already released a sequel, Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson on YouTube in 2025, and plans to make a threequel on this year’s trial proceedings.
