The directive over at the forthcoming Michael Jackson biopic?
Don’t stop till you cut enough!
Apparently in recent months, the team behind “Michael” has been slicing and dicing away at their movie, which moonwalks into theaters on April 24.
Reducing the runtime is a normal part of the production process, of course, but these many edits have been focused on a specific kind of scene.
I’m pretty sure you can guess what that is, and it ain’t the “Thriller” music video.
According to Variety, a discovery by attorneys for the Jackson estate of some old legal fine print has led to the excising of all the material involving allegations that the late singer sexually abused children.
You know? Those kids as young as 7 who oh so innocently slept in his adult bed and weirdly flew with him on private jets to Paris? That enormous and dramatic chapter in Jackson’s history?
All of that weirdness has been told to beat it.
The film, ostensibly meant to tell the story of the man’s whole life, was set to begin out of order with cops descending on his Neverland Ranch home, sources told the trade, and the final third of film dealt extensively with the scandal.
No longer.
Because the Jackson estate discovered a long-forgotten clause in their settlement agreement with Jordan Chandler, one of Jackson’s accusers in the early 1990s, which forbids them from depicting him or using his name in any movie. So they removed all mentions of abuse.
Hmmm. That the estate has not memorized every minute detail down to the last semicolon of the circumstances surrounding reprehensible events that they routinely deny and have worked tirelessly to get the public to ignore is … interesting!
They footed the bill for the reported $15 million of reshoots — pesos for the $3 billion entity — and what we’re likely left with is what everybody expected in the first place: a glitzy glorification of Michael Jackson.
That is also the movie the estate surely dreamt of from the start.
Pedophilia, needless to say, does not drive ticket sales or boost Spotify streams.
Of course, nobody can completely forget that sickening ugliness, which the harrowing documentary “Leaving Neverland” resurfaced in 2019.
But “Michael” is banking on that stain being overwhelmed by the public’s nostalgia for songs like “Billie Jean” and “Smooth Criminal” and for Jackson’s peerless performing ability. His nephew Jafaar Jackson — the 29-year-old son of Jermaine — is playing him, so there’s some dynastic appeal there too.
That “Michael” is now scrubbed squeaky clean will make it a simpler watch, yet at the same time a much more guilty one.
The Broadway musical “MJ” got away with the same trick by setting the show during rehearsals for the 1992 “Dangerous” tour — before Jackson had been accused of wrongdoing.
“MJ” was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2022, and leading man Myles Frost won Best Actor for playing Jackson. There are productions all over the world.
That musical thus came off like a sneaky mind game: It’s OK to have fun because none of that has happened yet.
And there is a significant audience share that goes to Broadway musicals for singing, dancing and dazzle — not dark psychological complexity or insight.
But at a biopic? There is a rightful expectation that a filmed life story will illuminate a famous person’s deeper existence rather than present an obfuscating hagiography. You want to learn more about mysterious and controversial figures, not get a North Korean state TV documentary about them.
There will not be a single review that doesn’t mention the omission.
Yet the tunes endure, and “Michael” will probably do boffo business at the box office. The model they’ll be looking to is “Bohemian Rhapsody”’s global $900 million, not “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”’s bombtastic $45 million. Focusing on the hits can sell.
I’m a firm believer in separating the artist from the art. Jackson’s music is timeless and excellent.
Whitewashing the artist’s history, however? Really, really bad.