Chapter 1: What is the glamorous portrayal of Michael Jackson in the new biopic?
The new blockbuster biopic, Michael, presents a glamorous and triumphant portrait of the world's biggest pop star.
Chapter 2: How do critics view the whitewashing of Michael Jackson's legacy?
The crowd pleaser has brought in massive box office revenues despite mixed reviews from critics who've called out its whitewashing of Michael's legacy, particularly claims of child sexual abuse that plagued the final decades of his life.
He told me if they ever found out what we were doing, he and I would go to jail for the rest of our lives.
Chapter 3: What are the sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson?
In this episode, we sit down with the director of the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, which chronicles sexual abuse allegations against Jackson and was controversially pulled from the platform after a legal battle.
Chapter 4: What insights does Dan Reed provide about the documentary Leaving Neverland?
I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. This is a weekend edition of Morning Wire.
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Chapter 5: How does the new Michael Jackson film compare to Leaving Neverland?
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Chapter 6: What changes were made in the script of the new Michael Jackson film?
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Joining us now to discuss the controversial legacy of Michael Jackson is Dan Reed. He's the director of the documentary Leaving Neverland, which chronicles sexual abuse allegations against the pop star. Dan, thank you so much for joining us. No worries. Pleasure to be on the show. So look, this new Michael Jackson movie is making big waves. It's a huge success at the box office.
The critics' reviews aren't great, but the audience loves it. Rotten Tomatoes, I think it's something like 96% approval. It's a real crowd pleaser. Did you see the film, and what do you think about the film, if you did?
I once see it at the weekend, actually. In the same theater, we had the press premiere of Leaving Neverland, my 2019 documentary, so that was kind of weird. It's definitely a crowd pleaser. It's a kind of jukebox movie with, I mean, Jaffa Jackson is a great dancer. He can move.
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Chapter 7: How do the accusers' stories evolve over time?
His performance as Jackson is quite wooden otherwise. He's a bit of a waxwork. You don't get any insight into what made Jackson tick. And the issue of his relationship with kids is kind of repeats all the tropes of like, well, he didn't have a childhood and he really liked Peter Pan and he was like nice to kids and he wanted to hang out with kids.
And so if you like, it just draws a veil over his relationship with children and it suggests that it's benign and he was just a strange man with this, you know, it doesn't show him as someone who had a sex life.
We've heard there were earlier drafts of the movie. I think the director talked about this, that would have addressed the abuse claims more directly. What do you know about that? What changed here?
Well, I read an early version of the script that was leaked to me. I believe it was genuine. So the movie was framed through the optic of the Jordan Chandler story. Now, Jordan Chandler was the... The 13-year-old boy who made the first claims of sexual abuse against Jackson, he got paid off, I think, to the tune of like $25 million, a very large sum, in 1993-94.
So that story was central to the draft that I read. The boy and his parents were represented as frauds, as gold diggers trying to extort Jackson, and Jackson was represented as the innocent victim of these cruel people.
And there was a legal issue in the settlement between, I believe, between the estate and Jordan Chandler and his parents, which said, okay, you know, the terms of the settlement mean that you cannot turn our story into a movie. So they had to ax all of that, reshoot the whole movie, practically the whole movie, I think, which the estate paid for. So big mess, big mess.
They tried to make a film that was like the rebuttal of my documentary story. And they failed. So they couldn't even try to refute the claims because of their legal settlement. That's fascinating. Jordan Chandler was the first known accuser, but there were many more that came after, and they could have written stories about them, but they didn't.
You know, in terms of the critical backlash, you're certainly not alone in saying this is a sanitized or a sort of whitewashed portrayal of Jackson. So what should his legacy be? He is a superstar, right? He's somebody that did rise to fame in a way that's really remarkable. How should we view Jackson?
You know, I felt kind of sad because the story of Jackson's
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Chapter 8: What complexities exist in Michael Jackson's legacy and public perception?
That's what my film's about. It's about these two guys. And I didn't concern myself with Jackson's career. But I do believe from what I've read that that's sort of more or less accurate that, you know, he, that Joe Jackson was a real martinet, you know, a tough taskmaster. And he gave the boys a hard time and particularly on Michael, you know, so.
And from that comes the whole myth of like, oh, well, Michael Jackson never had a childhood. And, you know, and therefore he had to spend lots of time with children. You know, so what actually happened is he stole a lot of other kids' childhoods because he didn't have one. And, you know, he ruined a lot of other children's childhoods, which is in a very spectacularly cruel way.
And so I think, you know, look, we wouldn't make a film about Jeffrey Epstein's, you know, contribution to charitable work. to philanthropy or Harvey Weinstein's amazing movie career, without mentioning the fact that there's a darker side to these characters.
But it seems to be possible for people to believe that Jackson is innocent, partly because he started constructing his own cover story while he was alive. I'm just a big kid and I like to spend time with kids because they're pure and I'm pure and, you know, he portrayed himself as this sort of asexual being. And I think, well, that's fine, but just play with the kids during the day.
But why don't you give the children back to their parents at night? You don't have to go into your bedroom with a little boy at the age of seven or eight or nine and lock the door and spend the night alone with this child while their parents are sort of distracted somewhere else. You know, I think there's so many holes in the Jackson story.
What we do know is that he did spend the night alone with very, very young children. He didn't deny that. And so that in itself, you couldn't put that in a movie because it would creep people out. So, you know, this is definitely a movie that sidesteps, it swerves all these important biographical pictures. And as a result... The image you get of Jackson from the movie is really wooden.
Now, the family says these allegations are smears. The estate, as you've highlighted, was heavily involved in the making of this film. So it has, you know, the family's complete approval. The lawyers say the accusers are, and I'm quoting here, the epitome of unreliable sources because they went from defending Jackson to accusing him. What's your response to that?
Well, that quote actually is about the Casio family. So this is a new bunch of accusers that came out of the woodwork after when they watched Leaving Neverland. This is in 2019. So this is five kids who were kids at the time that they knew Jackson. They watched my documentary and they go, geez, that's what happened to us. And they all kind of look at each other and like, you too? You too?
You know, they realize for the first time, according to their current story. But yes, that family had enthusiastically supported and vindicated Jackson's innocence and taken quite a lot of money from the estate, apparently as a sort of, you know, to buy their silence. Just to be clear, Wade Robson and James Safechuck never took money from the estate, never even allowed themselves to be gagged.
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