Michael director Antoine Fuqua spoke for the first time about the film’s dramatic reshoots in a new interview with The New Yorker. Ahead of the biopic’s theatrical release, Variety reported that Michael was forced to spend up to $15 million on additional filming to overhaul the film’s structure.
The original film began in 1993 with police raiding Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch on suspicion of sexually abusing 13-year-old Jordan Chandler. The film then flashes back, telling the superstar’s life and reenacting the allegations and the Chandler family’s lawsuit, which Jackson eventually settled for $23 million before the Chandler family stopped cooperating with prosecutors and the investigation ended.
The final film contains nothing about the allegations against Jordan Chandler or his family. These scenes had to be removed after lawyers for Jackson’s estate realized there was a clause in the settlement that prohibited Chandler from being depicted or mentioned in any film. The original opening scene, which showed police raiding the Neverland Ranch, is gone, but Fuqua teased to The New Yorker that “we filmed[Michael]being stripped naked and treated like an animal and a monster.”
According to The New Yorker, “Despite the number of accusers (five) and the fact that Jackson has talked publicly about sharing beds with boys, Fuqua is not convinced that Jackson did what he is accused of.”
Jackson was charged in 2005 with 10 charges related to the alleged abuse of another 13-year-old, but was later acquitted of all charges. The 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland documented new allegations from two more of Jackson’s alleged victims.
“Whenever I hear something about us, especially black people, especially certain positions, it always gives me pause,” Fuqua said, noting that Fuqua was “skeptical of some of the accuser’s parents, especially Chandler’s father, who was recorded threatening Jackson, saying he was ‘incredibly humiliated.'”
Fuqua stressed that he does not know the truth behind the allegations that have been made against Jackson over the years, but noted that “sometimes people do terrible things for money.”
As reported by Variety, Fuqua and his “Michael” cast and crew came together last June to overhaul the film with 22 days of reshoots. Officials said the Jackson Foundation was responsible for the up to $15 million bill because the changes were necessitated by the Jackson Foundation’s negligence. The new version of “Michael” ends with the icon at the peak of his career, with the dramatic twist of the story centering on family tensions between Jackson and his overbearing father, Joe.
“Michael” will be released in theaters by Lionsgate on Friday.
