The Michael Jackson biopic is apparently having major third-act problems

A Michael Jackson biopic was both an inevitability and a daunting task for any filmmaker. His legacy as a musician and as a tabloid figure are unparalleled, albeit in very different directions. The fact that Jackson’s estate is involved, and the fact that his nephew is taking on the role of Michael, led to speculation that the movie might gloss over some of the more unsavory aspects of Jackson’s life, namely the allegations of child sex abuse that followed him in the final two decades of his life and beyond. 

But apparently, the Antoine Fuqua biopic had every intention of addressing the allegations and its approach has landed the team in hot water. This is per a new report from Matthew Belloni’s newsletter Puck, which describes the issue. The script reportedly begins and ends amid the investigation launched by Jordan Chandler’s family, and per Belloni, “directly engages with the allegations against Jackson. And it not only engages, it wants very much to convince you Michael is innocent.” The third act of the script is largely about the media circus at the time, and apparently features a scene where the Jackson family discusses whether to pay off the Chandlers. Unfortunately for the film, Jackson’s team had a signed agreement with the Chandlers to never include them in any dramatization of Michael’s life. These scenes were already shot and now have to be scrapped. Whoops! 

The way this happened is rather complicated, but the long and short of it is this. John Branca, one of the executors of Michael’s estate and a figure who was in and out of his life in the 80s and 90s, apparently assured the filmmakers that they had nothing to worry about when including the saga. But it sounds like it wasn’t Branca but Johnny Cochran who handled this settlement with the family, and the team at the film wasn’t aware of issues until a September story in the Financial Times detailed hush money payments for other accusers. Having previously thought their story was airtight enough to film and to tease footage of, producer Graham King started poking the estate more and discovered the issue. This is a film, by the way, with a $150 million budget. Again, whoops. 

Now, King and Fuqua have been spending the last few weeks trying to figure out how to salvage the nearly-completed film. Belloni reports that there is a chance that Lionsgate and Universal could bail on the project entirely, but that doesn’t sound particularly likely. There have been stages booked for reshoots in March (a tidbit TMZ just backed up on their own), and the team is still shooting for an October release—in part because there is hardly any room on Universal’s slate to move the project until 2026. Of course, if the film is using the 1993 media circus as a framing device, it sounds like there is a significant amount of screen time that will need to be altered. Detailing this part of Jackson’s life was always going to be difficult, but it has turned into, to borrow Belloni’s word, a complete nightmare.