Just a few days ago we heard the news that Michael Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, will play the King of Pop in the upcoming biopic about the singer. This film, ‘Michael’, does not yet have a release date – some point to 2024 – but it is already causing controversy.
The director of the documentary ‘Leaving Neverland’, Dan Reed, has lit the fuse in comments made to The Guardian.
This documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019, available for free on RTVE Play, and shows one of the alleged darker sides of Michael Jackson by talking to two children, James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who were allegedly abused for years by the American artist.
The version presented in ‘Leaving Neverland’ has been questioned on numerous occasions. Even other documentaries, such as Amazon Prime’s ‘Michael Jackson: Pursue the Truth’ released in August 2019, among others, question the portrayal of the King of Pop in Dan Reed‘s production, which was nominated for five Emmy Awards.
Dan Reed’s criticism of the new Michael Jackson biopic
Context is important to understand Dan Reed‘s statements.
“No one is talking about cancelling this film, which will glorify a man who raped children. It seems that the press, his fans and the many older people who grew up loving Jackson are willing to put aside the unhealthy relationship with the children and follow the music,” he stated bluntly in his article.
In addition, the director of ‘Leaving Neverland’ has sent a message in The Guardian to those responsible for the new biopic about the artist: “I say to the filmmakers: how will you depict the moment when Jackson, a grown man in his 30s, takes a child by the hand and leads him into that room? How will you describe what happens next?”
The conclusion of Dan Reed‘s text is devastating: “By sidestepping the question of Jackson‘s predilection for sleeping with young children, he is conveying a message to millions of child sex survivors. That message is: if a paedophile is rich and popular enough, society will forgive him”.
