The King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who died in 2009, is going to get his biopic. Distributed by Lionsgate, the film, which does not yet have a director, will be designed in close collaboration with the legatees of the man with more than 350 million albums sold worldwide.
In development for several years, the biopic devoted to Michael Jackson will finally see the light of day through the studio Lionsgate, which has acquired the distribution rights to the film. The film will be produced by Graham King, the producer of Bohemian Rhapsody (Bryan Singer, 2018) – a very uninspired and ultra-focused biopic regarding the life of Freddie Mercury, the iconic leader of Queen – but also The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, 2004), The Infiltrators (Martin Scorsese, 2006), Dark Shadows (Tim Burton, 2012) or Argo (Ben Affleck, 2012).
Entitled Michael, the film will be written by John Logan, screenwriter, among others, of Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2001), Hugo Cabret (Martin Scorsese, 2011), Skyfall (2012) and Spectrum (2015) by Sam Mendes. According to the press release issued by the studio, the film ” will offer the audience a detailed portrait of the complex man who became the King of Pop. It will bring Jackson’s most iconic performances to life while giving an enlightened insight into the artist’s creative process and personal life”.
According to these first elements of information, the film will return in particular to the beginnings of Michael Jackson with the Jackson Five, his meteoric solo career elevating him to the rank of global superstar and his troubles with the justice system related to allegations of sexual abuse of minors, incriminating the American artist who died in 2009 following a drug overdose. Given that Michael Jackson’s successors are watching out for the grain, we can probably expect a slightly watered-down biopic that will only attack the dark side of the King of Pop on the surface.
In 2019, the documentary Leaving Neverland, testimony of two alleged victims of the singer, had shaken the Sundance Film Festival and pushed the Jackson clan to broadcast on YouTube its own version of events. At the moment, the future biopic has no release date and it is not yet known who will step into the shoes of Michael Jackson, whose iconic Thriller (1982) to date, it remains the best-selling album of all time (more than 66 million copies sold).
