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Chapter 1: What story does the new Michael Jackson biopic tell?
The new Michael Jackson biopic doesn't tell the full story. In fact, it ends in the 80s at the peak of Michael's career. People online have taken issue with this fact. The team behind Michael should make a Hitler movie that ends with him triumphantly receiving the Iron Cross First Class Medallion for his distinguished service on the Western Front in World War I.
R. Kelly biopic that ends with the release of Space Jam. Music from and inspired by The Motion Picture. Jeffrey Epstein, the story of New York's greatest financier. But for all the shade, Michael is a massive hit. It's currently the biggest movie in the world with the biggest opening ever for a biopic. People are getting up and dancing in theaters.
What the dancers might not know is that this movie had to get made, then unmade, and then made again because of the elephant in the editing room. We're gonna tell that story on today's Explain from Vox. Support for Today Explained comes from CNN. Cool. Cable News Network, what's up? Do you want to live forever? What? Yes? Maybe? I haven't thought about it that much.
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Chapter 2: Why is the Michael Jackson biopic a box office success?
Try Odoo for free at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. Matt Bellany is a founding partner of Puck, and he's maybe got more tea on the Michael movie than any other reporter on Earth.
Well, this project begins in 2019 with the Leaving Neverland documentary that came out on HBO and featured the two main accusers of Michael Jackson in a very influential and pretty stark and harrowing documentary recounting the allegations against him. 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. Secrets will eat you up.
You feel so alone. I want to be able to speak the truth as loud as I had to speak the lie for so long. That was devastating for the Michael Jackson estate, which had been pretty successful over the previous decade in rehabilitating Michael's image to the point where they were able to do a Broadway show.
It is now one of the hottest tickets on Broadway, and the musical just earned, get this, $10 million.
Tony nominations. And a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas. All right, Michael Jackson won by Cirque du Soleil, performs 10 shows a week at the Mandalay Resort and Casino.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did the filmmakers face during production?
And the music was still popular around the world. This documentary comes out, and radio stations started pulling the songs. And outrage over the conduct, alleged conduct, was pretty widespread. So they decided that it was time for a movie.
And Graham King, the producer of Bohemian Rhapsody, was very interested in doing a Michael Jackson movie, and he signed on to produce this, and they started on their way. So using the germ of this movie is explicitly a counter-narrative to the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, which sort of tarnishes Michael Jackson's image around the world. From the estate's perspective, 100%.
That's what they wanted out of this project. But what's interesting about the original plan for the movie is that it explicitly took on the allegations against him. And in many ways, according to the original script, shot those allegations down. So I imagine you're one of the few people who saw a version of this movie that isn't the most popular movie in the world right now.
What exactly was in this script and how does it differ from the movie that people are seeing right now? So the original script by John Logan opens with Michael Jackson at Neverland and there are police sirens outside and they are there for him. And then it goes back into his whole rise to fame and how he got here. And the third act of the movie, the last 45 minutes or so,
are Michael's life at Neverland and how he became increasingly detached from reality and surrounded by children. But then the accusers come for him and the family of Jordan Chandler, the 13 year old boy who ultimately made allegations against Jackson, they are portrayed as out to exploit money for him. And Michael is 100% presented as the victim of these allegations.
There's a strip search scene where the cops come to Neverland and conduct a strip search on him, and he's crying. It's really tough to read in the script. And at the end of the movie, or at the end of the script, There's a conversation that Michael has with his mother about how it all ended up here.
And it's really, it's kind of a sad moment about how he became this misunderstood figure in the culture. That's not in the ultimate movie. None of that is in the movie. It stops at 1988, the bad tour. And the reason for that is the legal stuff. Not only does it stop at the bad tour, but it starts at the bad tour.
Instead of starting in his Neverland estate and being a flashback into how did he get into all this trouble, it starts with him about to take the stage at this triumphant moment in his career in the late 80s. And it's funny hearing you describe the movie that you read about in this script. It seems to make a lot more sense having seen the final product because they keep...
Trying to set up that Michael Jackson is going to have this big split with his family and that it's going to be a lot harder for him when he's on his own. And they keep trying to set up his relationship with kids because he's constantly caring for sick kids and giving kids gifts and hanging out with kids at toy stores. But it never really goes anywhere.
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Chapter 4: How did the Leaving Neverland documentary influence the biopic?
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Chapter 5: What was included in the original script that didn't make it to the final film?
He was found not guilty in a court in 2005. The Leaving Neverland allegations are as vivid and believable as they may seem. They're just that. They're allegations. And then there's these more recent charges that are just coming up in court with this family who knew Michael. And those have yet to be adjudicated. And then the original charges that we talked about in 1993, those were settled.
And I've had many arguments with friends over beers about, does a settlement imply guilt? You can make a great argument for yes, and you can make a great argument for no. But in the end, to answer your question, no, there's never been any definitive proof. Chris Rock weighed in on Michael Jackson when he was still alive.
Another kid! I'm fucking done. I'm done with Michael. I'm done. I was a fan my whole life. I am fucking done. I'm handing him my glove. Okay.
Okay.
Dave Chappelle weighs in on him and this documentary once he's dead and the doc comes out.
I don't think he did it.
But you know what? Even if he did do it, you know what I mean?
You know what I mean? I mean, it's Michael Jackson. Do you think some part of this is people saying, you know, whatever he did is done, he's dead, and I still love this music and I'm ready to move on and just enjoy this movie? I don't want to characterize it as not caring anymore, but maybe there's nothing I can do. This man also was incredible. Let me go celebrate that.
Yeah, I mean, I think now we're getting into the territory of the validity of judge the art, not the artist. And as you know, as everyone knows, there are many, many, many examples of artists who have done terrible, horrific things. And yet we still like their work. James Brown, who was well known to have abused his spouses and other women that he was with. Do we not listen to James Brown?
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