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\n The late singer\u2019s daughter, Paris Jackson, condemns the \u201cdishonest\u201d film\u2019s inaccuracies. But that hasn\u2019t affected box-office tracking at all.
\n Photo: Lionsgate\n <\/p>\n
Any King of Pop completist or glutton for punishment seeking to fact-check the megabudget Michael Jackson biopic Michael<\/a> (in theaters now) will certainly have their work cut out for them. In the $200 million movie\u2019s telling, Jackson almost single-handedly brokered peace between the Los Angeles street gangs the Crips and the Bloods (who apparently united behind his dazzling gyrations on the set of the music video for \u201cBeat It\u201d). The singer\u2019s future-superstar younger sister Janet Jackson<\/a>, meanwhile, was completely absent from family life in the Jackson clan\u2019s shared Encino mansion. And while there are multiple sequences showcasing Michael (played by his real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson) frolicking with his beloved chimpanzee Bubbles, the allegations of pedophilia<\/a> against MJ are never once mentioned.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most unexpected critic of Michael\u2019s recounting of events is Jackson\u2019s own daughter, Paris Jackson<\/a>. On social media last year, the 28-year-old singer-songwriter-actress-model called the biographical drama \u201cdishonest\u201d and plagued with \u201cinaccuracy\u201d as well as \u201cjust full-blown lies.\u201d \u201cA big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad\u2019s fandom that still lives in fantasy, and they\u2019re gonna be happy with it,\u201d Paris wrote. Moreover, in a lawsuit filed last month, she accused the executors of the Jackson estate, John Branca and John McClain, of financial mismanagement, self-dealing, and excessive fees. She put Branca \u2014 also an executive producer on Michael \u2014 on blast for hiring Miles Teller (\u201cthe sole A-list cast member in the production\u201d) to portray a younger version of himself. \u201cUndoubtedly, Mr. Branca considers his story to be central to the Michael Jackson story,\u201d the complaint says. \u201cNonetheless, it is unclear how this peculiar and presumably costly casting decision will result in commensurate box office receipts.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, with most reviews for Michael critiquing its reliance upon alternative facts \u2014 \u201cIt can\u2019t be taken seriously<\/a>\u201d; \u201cfrustratingly shallow, inert<\/a>\u201d; \u201cMichael isn\u2019t a movie<\/a>. It\u2019s a filmed playlist in search of a story\u201d \u2014 the question is this: Will Paris\u2019s strenuous disavowal keep audiences away?<\/p>\n To be sure, her older brother, Prince, is an executive producer on the film; Paris\u2019s younger brother, Bigi (formerly Blanket), has participated in its promotions; and her aunt and uncles Jermaine, LaToya, Tito, Jackie, and Marlon are all also listed as EPs. In a response to Paris\u2019s lawsuit, the executors filed a brief dismissing her complaint for having a \u201ccomplete lack of understanding<\/a> how the motion picture industry works.\u201d (\u201cThese meritless objections are a profound waste of the court\u2019s time and, ironically, the estate\u2019s money,\u201d they wrote.) And according to prerelease \u201ctracking\u201d estimates, Michael is poised to moonwalk to the top spot of new movies in wide release over its opening weekend \u2014 projected to bring in as much as $80 million in North America and $150 million more across 82 foreign markets. That would shatter the $60.2 million opening-weekend record for a music biopic, set by the N.W.A hagiography Straight Outta Compton<\/a> in 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing is going to change anyone\u2019s position on how they feel about Michael with this movie,\u201d says a studio insider. \u201cIt\u2019s a Michael jukebox musical! It\u2019s nostalgia. It\u2019s fucking porn for a certain time in people\u2019s lives where the music was everything to them. If you are a Michael Jackson fan or if you are just kind of interested because of what [Paris is] saying \u2014 it\u2019s only good for this movie. Every album is going to go to No. 1 on iTunes. We\u2019re going to kick the flywheel into high gear right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Such an opening would certainly counteract some of the financial bleeding attached to costly overruns caused by a major fuck-up by the Jackson estate prior to a single frame of film ever being shot. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Emancipation) and written by John Logan<\/a>, Michael chronicles a span of some three decades of the Thriller singer\u2019s career. It encompasses his rocket to stardom out of small-town Indiana in the late \u201960s through to his suffering debilitating burns while filming a 1984 Pepsi commercial and subsequently battling back to health and reclaiming cultural relevancy three years later. But originally, as first reported by Puck, the movie was bookended by a 1993 investigation into statements made by Jordan Chandler \u2014 a then-13-year-old whose claims of sex abuse by Jackson led to a $23 million settlement. The film\u2019s third act in particular reportedly featured Jackson as the \u201cna\u00efve victim of the money-grubbing Chandlers whose unfounded claims force Jackson to endure ridicule and persecution until he ultimately settles, his resolve and reputation forever in tatters,\u201d Puck\u2019s Matt Belloni wrote.<\/p>\n Decades prior to production, however, the Jackson estate signed a contract with Chandler expressly forbidding its executors from depicting Chandler or his family in any way in a movie. Somehow, despite the legal pedigree of Branca and McClain \u2014 Branca being the lawyer who famously convinced Jackson to purchase the so-called Beatles catalogue<\/a> for $47 million \u2014 that part of the agreement was overlooked even as shooting commenced. And last year, as word of the then\u2013$155 million Jackson biopic\u2019s \u201cCan\u2019t show Jordy\u201d dysfunction rippled across Hollywood, Fuqua, Logan, and producer Graham King (behind the Oscar-winning 2018 Freddie Mercury bio-drama Bohemian Rhapsody<\/a>) were left scrambling for a work-around.<\/p>\n The movie\u2019s distributor, Lionsgate, pushed off the original release date of April 2025. In June, Michael underwent 22 days of reshoots at a reported cost of $15 million \u2014 with the estate footing the bill \u2014 that scrubbed any mention of Chandler, the singer\u2019s alleged pedophilia, and the reputational fallout. And the ending was reconfigured to focus on Jackson\u2019s recovery from the severe scalp burns he suffered during the Pepsi pyrotechnics accident.<\/p>\n Even within the studio system \u2014 where biopics\u2019 interpretations of a subject\u2019s life are often subjective rather than a rigid scaffold for facts \u2014 Michael\u2019s omission of the child sex-abuse allegations has raised eyebrows. \u201cIf you\u2019re doing an actual biopic and you don\u2019t address the central conflict in the person\u2019s life,\u201d our source notes, \u201cit\u2019s like you\u2019re doing a biopic on Hitler and you\u2019re skipping the years 1942 to \u201946.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Michael is hardly the first biopic to gild the historical lily or face stiff resistance from the subject\u2019s family members. The family of Jimi Hendrix refused to participate in the making of the 2013 Andr\u00e9 3000\u2013starring bio-drama Jimi: All Is by My Side<\/a> and went so far as to deny the filmmakers\u2019 rights to the Seattle guitar virtuoso\u2019s music. The Oscar-winning 2018 biopic Green Book<\/a> faced significant backlash from the family of concert pianist Dr. Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali in the movie), with Shirley\u2019s brother Maurice castigating his portrayal as a \u201csymphony of lies<\/a>.\u201d And several members of the Gucci family expressed dismay with their representation in director Ridley Scott\u2019s 2021 biographical drama House of Gucci<\/a>: Former brand chairman Aldo Gucci lamented their portrayal<\/a> as \u201cthugs, ignorant and insensitive to the world around them.\u201d<\/p>\n An Academy Award\u2013winning filmmaker who has directed several bio-dramas scoffs at the idea that such a movie could ever confine its plotting and depictions strictly to facts. \u201cNo biopic \u2014 no documentary, for that matter \u2014 is ever entirely factual,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause even a doc is \u2018entertainment.\u2019 Without dramatic or comedic structure, where are you but reading a CliffsNotes pamphlet?\u201d<\/p>\n Although Lionsgate has signaled an intent for a Michael: Part 2 \u2014 but won\u2019t yet commit until opening weekend tallies are in \u2014 a title card at the end of Michael promises, \u201cHis story continues.\u201d And while the movie was never envisioned to roll out in dual installments, thanks to the messy halo of reshoots and rescheduling, the studio now has plenty of foundation for a sequel. \u201cWe absolutely have more story to tell,\u201d Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson said<\/a> at the film\u2019s premiere Monday. \u201cAnd if the audience reinforces that they\u2019re ready for more, we\u2019re prepared to give it to them sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up for the Vulture Daily<\/p>\n An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n