Great news for Michael Jackson fans who flocked to theaters over the past week to help boost the Michael biopic to a record-breaking $97 million domestic opening: they might get one more chance to revisit the singer’s story on the big screen. In an interview on The Town With Matt Beloni podcast this week, Lionsgate vice chair Adam Fogelson said it’s possible a sequel could start filming this year or next.
“There is a massive amount of music, some of his greatest music, and life experiences separate and apart from [sexual abuse] allegations, a ton of that would fill more than a second movie on its own,” Fogelson told Beloni. Fogelson was asked about the first part of the film sidestepping the sexual abuse allegations leveled against Jackson that reportedly made up a majority of the third act of the film, before that footage was scrapped due to a previously reached settlement with the estate that barred it from being depicted in future commercial projects. He said the public clearly voted with their wallets.
“It turns out the general public really wanted to see a movie that did not engage with those allegations and celebrated the man and his music and the, you know, the trajectory to the top,” Fogelson said of the film that covered the years 1960-1988, ending the story before Jackson was accused by then-13-year-old Jordan Chandler of sexual abuse; the singer and his legal team vehemently denied the accusations and reached a financial settlement in a civil suit with Chandler’s family in 1994, with no criminal charges filed against the singer due to a lack of testimony. The removal of the segment taking on the Chandler allegations reportedly resulted in a costly $50 million reshoot.
Belloni noted that a potential sequel has a “problem” in that it cannot dramatize the specifics of that case due to the settlement, as well as a huge audience that showed up for the first film, prompting a question about whether those die-hards even want to see the lurid allegations on screen. “Do they want to see the dark script that I read when I read the original Michael Jackson movie?” Belloni asked, noting that the original script had a “strip search” scene and negativity about the allegations that went to “dark places.”
“How do you make a second move and dramatize all that without alienating the audience that came to the first movie?” he wondered.
While he didn’t want to get ahead of what the creative team has planned for a potential second part, Fogelson acknowledged that some of the things Belloni read in the original script cannot be included. “But continuing to get a deeper understanding of who Michael was, I think there are any number of ways the filmmakers will be able to pull that off,” Fogelson said. “And over the next couple weeks, when we all sit down and talk about their full and complete vision for what this movie will be, I’ll be in a better position to answer the question.”
Noting the reports of the dancing in the aisles reaction of fans at screenings, Fogelson said Jackson’s fans would have been happy if there had been “50 performances” in the original performance-heavy film. “People could have stayed in this theater forever,” Fogelson said. “And there are giant albums left and we just one song out of, you know, Bad as the end of the first movie, the [1993] Super Bowl [halftime show, which was included in the original script] which has been talked about, the first Super Bowl halftime show that literally changed the Super Bowl and he NFL and I’m not guaranteeing any of these moments are or not in,” Fogelson said. “I’m just saying there’s a huge portion of his life separate and apart from allegations.”
Fogelson added that director Antoine Fuqua and the creative team have been paying attention to audience reactions and will listen to those audiences when they think about the structure of a sequel “if and when we green light it.” As for whether Fogelson and the team feel a responsibility to engage with the allegations in the second part given how they tarnished the latter half of Jackson’s career and life, Fogelson said it is a “really complicated question” and that he’s not the best person to answer it and now is not the time to take that issue on. He reiterated that the original screenplay did attempt to tackle that thorny issue. Jackson steadfastly denied any allegations of sexual impropriety and was never convicted or held legally liable in any of the lawsuits against him in his lifetime or in the years since.
“Irrespective of what people would think, that screenplay had the courage to address and not because of anything that the estate or the filmmakers wanted to do, but the revelation of the agreement that prevented it from being dramatized is what prevented it,” Fogelson said. “And I think that needs to be a part of any conversation about what the filmmakers or what the estate were willing to do.”
The movie ends with a credits card that reads “His Story Continues,” hinting at a part II, with director Fuqua confirming to Deadline that there is “absolutely” one-third or more of shot footage that could be rolled into a sequel. “We went pretty far,” he said in describing how deep into Jackson’s later years the film originally went. “We went through the Jordan allegations we couldn’t use. We went farther than that. Maybe a year or two after that (1995) when things turned against Michael.”
Though he is reportedly scheduled to work on a Netflix project with Denzel Washington next, Fuqua said he would love to direct the next chapter if the schedule works out. “It would kill me if somebody else did it,” he said.
Listen to Fogelson talk about a possible Michael sequel below.
