Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed is making new claims against the late pop star Michael Jackson among the new biopic, aptly named Michael.
“I think that obviously some of the media is absorbing the Jackson machine because: A, the legacy and the fan base has been making sure that the price of criticizing Michael is years of intrusion and smears and he has,” Reed said. The Hollywood Reporter in an extensive interview published on Wednesday, April 22.
“And B, there’s a lot of money to be made from any kind of association with Jackson IP,” he continued. “If you can get on board and be a part of the success of this movie, that’s going to be great for you. So a lot of people, I think, will swallow any doubts they might have and just say, ‘Well, it’s a good jukebox movie’ and just ignore the fact that this guy was worse than a jukebox. Jeffrey Epstein.”
(Epstein, a convicted sex offender and known child molester, died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex charges. He was 66.)
Leaving Neverlanda four-hour documentary that premiered on HBO in 2019, has the details Wade Robson again James SafechuckThe allegations detail child sexual abuse against Jackson, who died in 2009 of an accidental drug overdose. The film, which won an Emmy, was described by the Jackson Estate as a “total fantasy” that was “completely one-dimensional.”
According to Reed, Jackson’s estate sued HBO, arguing that a 1992 contract with the network for a Budapest concert included a disparagement clause that made it illegal for the venue to play or include “anything negative about Michael” forever.
Dan Reed, the late Michael Jackson
Getty ImagesHBO settled out of court and was quietly removed Leaving Neverland from its place.
Us Weekly has reached out to the Jackson estate for comment about the lawsuit and Reed’s additional claims about the pop star.
Jackson was accused of sexually abusing children for years before his unexpected death. He always maintained his innocence. After the Los Angeles Police Department launched an investigation into Jackson in 1993, he settled the case for $30 million out of court, agreeing to pay the alleged victim. Jordan Chandler $15 million in trust will be available when he turns 18. June again Evan Chandlereach received $1.5 million. A grand jury ultimately declined to indict Jackson.
In 2003, the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s office and the District Attorney’s office renewed their investigation of Jackson, and on December 18, 2003, he was charged with engaging in lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14.
On June 14, 2004, after deliberating 32 hours over seven days, the jury found Jackson not guilty on all counts.
In 2020, the Financial Times reported that the Jackson estate has quietly agreed to pay $16.5 million to a group of plaintiffs who are threatening to bring new child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson in 2019. Jackson’s estate has reportedly filed an arbitration claim against one of the accusers, who say he fabricated the allegations in order to receive an additional $213 million in compensation.
This February, the Cascio family sued Jackson’s estate, saying that Jackson “was a juvenile delinquent who, over the course of more than a decade, drugged, raped, and sexually abused each of the plaintiffs, beginning when some were as young as seven or eight years old.”
The Jackson Estate has denied the claims, calling the lawsuit “a money grab” and “an obvious stage-buying ploy in their plan to get hundreds of millions of dollars from Michaels’ estate and companies.” On March 4, a judge granted the Jackson estate’s request to compel a dispute over the Cascio family settlement.
An upcoming biopic about Michael Jackson is reportedly in need of reshoots after a previous legal settlement from an accuser was obtained recently. According to a report from Puck on Thursday, January 23, the film originally included a lawsuit against the late singer – who died in 2009 at the age of 50 – by Evan Chandler. […]
“I read that Michael Jackson f***ed little boys,” Reed said The Hollywood Reporter about what he learned while doing Leaving Neverland. “That’s what I learned. I don’t make films about celebrities or pop music or any kind of music. I make documentaries about terrorist attacks and war and so on. And as a filmmaker, this was not my usual beat, but I saw it as an opportunity to do something about child sexual abuse, which I had touched on in a previous film.”
He continued, “How can you tell the true story of Michael Jackson without talking about the fact that he was accused of being a child abuser? I just don’t see it. If anyone is making money, it’s the legacy of Michael Jackson and the people who worked on this life picture. Wade and James, the main characters of Leaving Neverlandthey never mined a cent from what they said. People don’t seem to understand: If you file a lawsuit, you don’t get paid until you win in court. And if you win in court, that means you’ve proven your case, right?”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
If you or someone you know is being abused by children, call or text the Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
