It is clear one thing everyone is thinking about is the extraordinary amount of money the Queen film made. It passed $900million at the global box office fuelled by nostalgia and love for the music and the main man, Freddie Mercury. Few other acts have a comparable back catalogue like Jackson, but even fewer also carry such a heavy shadow. A new Hollywood leak confirms the film will not avoid the hugely controversial aspects of Jackson’s life.
Industry site Deadline is reporting the extraordinary news.
Reporter Mike Fleming Jr said: “Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King has secured from the Michael Jackson estate the rights to make a film of the complicated pop icon’s life with access to all of his music, sources say…
“I’m told that the film isn’t intended to be a sanitized rendering of Jackson’s life.”
This project will also be very different from Bohemian Rhapsody is a surprisingly bold way.
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The recent controversial documentary Leaving Neverland reignited the divisive arguments over Jackson’s guilt or innocence.
James Safechuck and Wade Robson detailed their alleged abuse but other former child friends of Jackson have also categorically denied anything happened.
The arguments continue to rage among fans, friends, family and the media while the two witnesses and the documentary makers have been variously locked in legal battles with the Jackson Estate.
Furthermore, it is inevitable that once the film starts production it will be attacked and any release would also certainly provoke protests.
It is difficult to see how any of these contentious issues could be addressed successfully, or legally, in any film at the current time. Or, indeed, how the film could be promoted.
Meanwhile, Deadline reports the project is gathering steam and that King’s production company GK Films has brought on board the highly respected and three-time Oscar-nominated writer John Logan to make a start on the script.
AS yet, the project has not been optioned by any studio.
ORIGINAL REPORT IN DEADLINE