Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed is criticizing the new Michael Jackson biopic while claiming that the late pop icon was “worse than Jeffrey Epstein.”
Antoine Fuqua’s Michael hits theatres Friday and gives “an in-depth portrayal of the complicated man who became the King of Pop,” according to Lionsgate, which handles the worldwide distribution of the film.
Reed is questioning how the new biopic failed to acknowledge the abuse allegations explored in his 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, which raised child molestation allegations from Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who shared in harrowing detail how they say Jackson sexually abused them as boys.
“It says that people don’t care that he was a child molester. Literally, people just don’t care,” Reed told the Hollywood Reporter. “I think a lot of people just love his music and turn a deaf ear. And short of having actual video evidence of Michael Jackson engaged in sexual intercourse with a 7-year-old child, I don’t know what would be sufficient to change these people’s minds.
“How can you tell an authentic story about Michael Jackson without ever mentioning the fact that he was seriously accused of being a child molester?”
Fuqua, the director of Michael, recently responded to accusations against Jackson during an interview with The New Yorker.
“Sometimes people do some nasty things for some money,” Fuqua said.
Reed addressed Fuqua’s remarks, saying, “For Antoine Fuqua to accuse people of gold digging is kind of ironic. It seems to me all the people involved in this movie are just making bank.”
“If anyone’s making money, it’s Michael Jackson’s estate and the people who worked on this biographical picture,” Reed added.
Reed said that Robson and Safechuck “have never made a cent from their accusations” against Jackson.
“People don’t seem to understand: If you bring a lawsuit, you don’t get any money until you win in court. And when you win in court, that means you’ve proved your case, right?” he said.
He went on to claim that the “press” is “sucking up to the Jackson machine.”
“The estate and the fan base has always ensured that the price of criticizing Michael is years of invective and smears and what have you,” Reed said, adding that there’s “a ton of money to be made by any kind of association with the Jackson IP.”
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“If you can get on board and be part of the success of this movie, then that’s going to be good for you,” Reed added.
“So a lot of people, I think, will kind of swallow any misgivings they may have and just sort of say, ‘Oh well, it’s a great jukebox movie’ and just completely ignore the fact that this guy was worse than Jeffrey Epstein,” Reed said.
In 2013 and 2014, Wade and Safechuck filed lawsuits against Jackson’s MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc., two corporations for which Jackson was the sole owner and lone shareholder.
The Jackson estate has adamantly and repeatedly denied that he abused either of the boys, and has emphasized that Robson testified at Jackson’s 2005 criminal trial that he had not been abused, and Safechuck said the same to authorities.
In 2021, Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young ruled that the two corporations and their employees had no legal duty to protect Robson and Safechuck from Jackson and threw out the suits. But in a tentative decision in 2023, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed that judgment and ordered the cases back to trial.
Robson said he met Jackson when he was five years old. He went on to appear in Jackson music videos and record music on his label.
His lawsuit alleged that Jackson molested him over a seven-year period. It said he was Jackson’s employee, and the employees of two corporations had a duty to protect him the same way the Boy Scouts or a school would need to protect children from their leaders.
Safechuck said in his suit that he met Jackson while filming a Pepsi commercial when he was nine. He said Jackson called him often and lavished him with gifts before moving on to a series of incidents of sexual abuse.
Several members of the Jackson family attended a premiere for Michael in Los Angeles on Monday.
Jackson is portrayed in the film by his nephew Jaafar Jackson, the son of Jermaine Jackson.
Jackson’s siblings La Toya, Marlon, Jermaine and Jackie Jackson were all in attendance for the premiere.
La Toya said she was “flabbergasted” to see her nephew play her brother in the film.
“I have to tell you that you think it’s Mike,” La Toya Jackson told the Hollywood Reporter of the portrayal. “You forget it’s Jaafar, you think it’s Michael.”
The Jackson family was involved in the making of the film and it’s been reported that Jackson’s son, Prince Jackson, was on set every day during shooting and was also involved in the film’s development.
Jackson’s daughter, Paris Jackson, has previously said that she wasn’t involved in the film.
She said she “read one of the first drafts of the script and gave my notes about what was dishonest/didn’t sit right with me and when they didn’t address it I moved on with my life.”
Paris and Jackson’s sister, Janet Jackson, were both notably absent from the premiere on Monday.
— With files from The Associated Press
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