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In two weeks comes Antoine Fuqua’s “Michael,” a biopic about singer Michael Jackson that has been undergoing quite the creative overhaul behind-the-scenes.
A new report by Variety has gone into the various changes made to the film as it went through production and subsequent reshoots, and revealed some drastic changes compared to how the film was originally planned.
Their sources indicate it now ends with Jackson at his peak, namely while Jackson was touring the “Bad” album at the end of the 1980s. No mention is reportedly made of the child abuse accusations and scandal.
That’s a change from the original plans as the film’s original third act was reportedly devoted to the scandal and how it impacted Jackson’s life. The same goes for the now excised opening sequence – a flashforward bookend set in 1993 with Jackson staring at himself in the mirror while police car lights flash behind him.
In June last year, the cast reassembled for 22 days of additional photography to shoot the new third act and flesh out scenes from earlier in the movie. The result was an additional $10-15 million added to the film’s already high $155 million budget.
In this case, the Jackson estate shouldered those extra costs because its error (tied to a legal settlement) necessitated the changes. The estate now reportedly has an equity stake in the film.
The film’s tension now centers around Michael’s relationship with his domineering father, Joe Jackson. It’ll also deal with Jackson’s recovery from the severe scalp burns during a Pepsi commercial filming, which led to him abusing painkillers. The trade also indicates Janet Jackson is not a character in the movie.
What will become of the cut footage isn’t clear, but its suggested roughly 30% of the material jettisoned from “Michael” could be reconstituted for potential sequels.
The movie itself is tracking for an opening of over $55 million at the box-office when it arrives on April 24th and check out the just-released final trailer below.
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