James Whitehead
Fresh off the four-film Beatles announcement, we could be looking at another multi-film event to capture the career of a music legend, as reports suggest “Michael”, the upcoming biopic on pop icon Michael Jackson, is now being converted into two separate films.
Coming from the well-respected Antoine Fuqua, director of “Training Day”, “The Equalizer” & “Southpaw” to name a few. “Michael” was expected to come later in 2025, but with this news of the footage being split into two films, this could see a slight delay in the original release date.
A Michael Jackson biopic has been in development in many guises, for decades, but it has always managed to hit some issues or delays along the way. Over the years this has been for many reasons, whether it be disagreements about who plays the icon, or concerns as to what degree the film would delve into some of the darker sides behind Michael’s fame.
The Jackson family have always been very heavily involved in any sort of production about a film depicting Michael’s life and getting them to approve of everything the studio and directors have wanted to portray has often been a point controversy, with the family naturally wanting to honour and protect the singer’s legacy.
At least on that side it does seem like the studio and the family have managed to work through most of their issues. The family has approved the script, the cast and the director. For the first time there were boots on the ground and production on the film had been progressing steadily for weeks. But after all this time and prep, the studio and the film maker realized something. And that something was the main driving point behind splitting the film into two.
Due to the scope and scale of Micael Jackson’s discography, it simply couldn’t all be squeezed into one film, not whilst also getting in-depth about his personal and family life. There was simply too much to cover, to the point that rumours started circulating that the runtime for the film was creeping up to almost four hours long. From a marketing standpoint, regardless of the singer’s global popularity, you won’t be able to draw crowds to a cinema screening for four hours. So, it seems the course of action to reduce the runtime is by splitting the film they were making into two.
Whilst we wait to see how this affects the narrative, if the films will be linear in story telling or move back and forth in time we will have to wait and see. But for fans of Michael Jackson and those hoping to see a more extensive look into the king of pop, this is certainly welcome news.
Reshoots have been scheduled as new scenes may have to be added to help tie both films together narratively, but hopefully this won’t affect the release too much as production was already well under way. Michael is being portrayed by his nephew Jaafar Jackson and for now, we can expect “Michael” to release sometime in October this year, whether that’s simply part one or not, we will have to wait and see.
