The King of Pop had even called Warner Bros to express his interest in the role, he was determined!
In 1996, Michael Jackson traveled the world for the HIStory World Tour, playing 82 concerts in front of over 4.5 million fans. But what few people know is that that same year, the King of Pop also had a completely different project: to embody Morpheus in the television adaptation. The Sandman de Neil Gaiman.
A catastrophic development in the 90s
With Stranger Thingsit’s one of the biggest hits of the summer on Netflix.The Sandmanhas topped the platform’s global rankings for three consecutive weeks. The God of Dreams has finally fulfilled the dream of many fans of the comic. However, it took more than 20 years to see an adaptation worthy of the name on our screens.
A film should have been released in the 90s, but due to conflicts between the directors, the film adaptation never saw the light of day. This is how in the podcast “Happy Sad Confused”, Neil Gaiman reveals that Michael Jackson had contacted Warner Bros to express his interest in the main role of The Sandman.
In 1996 I was taken to Warners, where the chairman of Warner Bros sat me down and told me that Michael Jackson had phoned him the day before and asked if he might play Morpheus in The Sandman .
The roles of Michael Jackson in the cinema
As we know, Michael Jackson had a taste for acting and staging. Costumes, make-up and above all choreography, these many video clips have become legendary. Was he a good actor for all that? Not so bad according to the various critics, especially with his role in The Wiz (1978) or even Ghosts (1997). So, would he have been better than Tom Sturridge in the role of Sandman?
Sources used:
Wikipedia – Filmography Michael Jackson
