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"Michael", a biopic about Michael Jackson, is officially happening.

zinniabooklover said:
Interesting comments. :unsure:


https://twitter.com/x/status/1832751936707199201

https://twitter.com/x/status/1832793210508210520
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I think the influence of the biopic on Elvis streams and Queen's streams are worlds apart. While Elvis certainly had a bit of an uptick, I think it has long since evaporated. I really think every Christmas has more influence on his streams than the biopic did.
But with Queen the effects were sensational and long-lasting. Queen currently has a big lead over MJ. If after the biopic MJ is in front of Queen and can keep it that way, it will be a great success.
 
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Annita said:
I think the influence of the biopic on Evli's streams and Queen's streams are worlds apart. While Elvis certainly had a bit of an uptick, I think it has long since evaporated. Really think every Christmas has more influence on its streams than the biopic did.
But with Queen the effects were sensational and long-lasting. Queen currently has a big lead over MJ. If after the biopic MJ is in front of Queen and can keep it that way, it will be a great success.
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ooh, now that is interesting! (y)
 
The Aviator, written by John Logan and directed by Scorsese, is my favourite biopic ever.

Logan is a brilliant, nuanced writer that has an ability to ground larger than life figures. The Aviator is about one of Michael's favourite subjects- Howard Hughes. Michael used to spend hours picking Katherine Hepburn's brain about what he was like when he was only around 20. So to now have him pen MJ's life story is so poetic.

I've always known that Hughes was an eccentric recluse, but the film touched on his childhood traumas, his abusive mother, his suspected OCD, his obsessive perfectionism, his abrasiveness, the breakdown in his psyche etc. in compassionate ways. You find yourself rooting for him. The pacing was excellent, the dialogue compelling.

This film is definitely not going to be another Bohemian Rhapsody. Didn't love that one, script was a superficial mess.

The whole production team here is wildly talented and they seem passionate about their subject.
 
cosmocousin said:
[...] Logan is a brilliant, nuanced writer that has an ability to ground larger than life figures. The Aviator is about one of Michael's favourite subjects- Howard Hughes. Michael used to spend hours picking Katherine Hepburn's brain about what he was like when he was only around 20. So to now have him pen MJ's life story is so poetic. [...]
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I love John Logan interviews. He's so interesting and articulate. I hope he does some interviews once the film is out, I hope it isn't just the actors.

Re-posting this little clip (from 2020):

https://twitter.com/x/status/1802380525149286545
 
filmandmusic said:
So is Heaven Can Wait, it is top 20 every week.

So Chicago is almost on 300 million streams, approximately half of Thriller’s total. Yet we see Thriller scoring about the same amount of streams as Chicago daily. It makes me wonder how it is possible it is catching up on Thriller. It can only be so that Chicago was at one point on 1 million daily streams I guess
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Chicago was mega viral on TikTok throughout 2023. The app skews young, and hearing MJ's voice over trap production had its novelty.
 
cosmocousin said:
Chicago was mega viral on TikTok throughout 2023. The app skews young, and hearing MJ's voice over trap production had its novelty.
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I think MJs voice is surprisingly adept with the modern sounds. It's certainly no fault of his if he doesn't. He embraced hip hop sensibilities.
 
Paris78 said:

The Jacksons Share Their Thoughts on the Michael Jackson Biopic and Praise Jaafar Jackson​

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Technically there's 2 other movies related to the Jackson family, but not directly about them. Janet is character in biopics about Bobby Brown & Bobby DeBarge. Jermaine & LaToya are also characters in the Bobby DeBarge movie. I've seen the Brown biopic, but not the DeBarge one other than some clips.
 
Are there actually actors for Evan Chandler and Jordan Chandler in the biopic? I hope so.
 
filmandmusic said:
I wonder how they will handle the beatings Joe gave. Only Michael seemed to get really hurt by them as the other brothers never complained or downplayed it some. I’m wondering if Michael was the only one affected by it.
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I'm not so sure about that. Where did I read this - was it Jermaine's book? The story about Marlon getting a beating and Joe made him go out back and get a piece of wood off the tree or shrub which Joe then used to thrash him? Normally I take anything Jermaine says with a pinch of salt but, I dunno, I can imagine this story being true. I've seen comments that Michael got beaten worse partly bc he was so defiant but I've also seen comments that Marlon got it worse than the others bc he wasn't so good at the dancing. Personally, I think psychological damage creates problems as much as physical harm does.

Maybe they will happen off-screen? 🤷🏽‍♀️
 
filmandmusic said:
Well I don’t see why there should be direct physical violence in a biopic. There should be more subtle ways.
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Well because highly emotional dramatic scenes are what make a movie interesting. Otherwise you might as well just read his Wikipedia page. A good movie makes the audience feel what the characters are feeling, and you can achieve that a lot more effectively when you show what they went through than when you just subtly mention it. Michael talked about the pain he suffered during his childhood all the time, he talked about a fear so great he fainted or threw up at the mere sight of his father, yet people still don't understand him or why he was always crying about his lost childhood, sometimes even his own fans downplay the abuse. Some people have to see it and feel it to understand it.
 
etoile 37 said:
Well because highly emotional dramatic scenes are what make a movie interesting. Otherwise you might as well just read his Wikipedia page. A good movie makes the audience feel what the characters are feeling, and you can achieve that a lot more effectively when you show what they went through than when you just subtly mention it. Michael talked about the pain he suffered during his childhood all the time, he talked about a fear so great he fainted or threw up at the mere sight of his father, yet people still don't understand him or why he was always crying about his lost childhood, sometimes even his own fans downplay the abuse. Some people have to see it and feel it to understand it.
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That is the things they can show. young Michael being distraught, scared, sick. I don’t think we need to see the belt beatings, it is not a horror film
 
filmandmusic said:
That is the things they can show. young Michael being distraught, scared, sick. I don’t think we need to see the belt beatings, it is not a horror film
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MJ The Musical featured a short scene of MJ being smacked as a boy and later shoved by Joseph as an adult, so I doubt they'll shy away from it in a biopic drama if they covered it in his jukebox musical.

It's a reality of his life that he wasn't afraid to graphically describe. Obviously they don't need to have prolonged, sadistic scenes of whippings via microphone wires, but censoring his reality makes no sense. The American Dream did a pretty good job of using camera work to pan away from the more distressing scenes of abuse.
 
zinniabooklover said:
The story about Marlon getting a beating and Joe made him go out back and get a piece of wood off the tree or shrub which Joe then used to thrash him?
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That's called a switch, which is a stick from a tree/bush. It was pretty common in families decades ago, at least where I'm from in the southern US. Just like in school the teachers would spank students with a wood board, called a paddle. At my middle school, the gym teachers would paddle kids (3 times) who wasn't dressed for PE and then make them walk around in the back of the school campus for the entire class period. Which was dark blue shorts & a white t-shirt (for boys) & the girls wore dark blue shorts and a sleeveless top with blue & white stripes. Some kids didn't want to wear that when it was wintertime and rather got the spanking instead. My fourth grade teacher was old and didn't use a paddle, she would hit students on the hand with a wooden spoon, which actually hurt more than the board. Some parents would spank with an electric cord or their hand, but leather belts were probably the most common thing to use.
 
DuranDuran said:
That's called a switch, which is a stick from a tree/bush. It was pretty common in families decades ago, at least where I'm from in the southern US. Just like in school the teachers would spank students with a wood board, called a paddle. At my middle school, the gym teachers would paddle kids (3 times) who wasn't dressed for PE and then make them walk around in the back of the school campus for the entire class period. Which was dark blue shorts & a white t-shirt (for boys) & the girls wore dark blue shorts and a sleeveless top with blue & white stripes. Some kids didn't want to wear that when it was wintertime and rather got the spanking instead. My fourth grade teacher was old and didn't use a paddle, she would hit students on the hand with a wooden spoon, which actually hurt more than the board. Some parents would spank with an electric cord or their hand, but leather belts were probably the most common thing to use.
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yeah, I know all of this. Sadly, I grew up in the era of this type of punishment. It was considered normal. Not really up for delving back into the details of it, tbh.
 
filmandmusic said:
That is the things they can show. young Michael being distraught, scared, sick. I don’t think we need to see the belt beatings, it is not a horror film
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For some people that would be enough. But there are people who still wouldn't understand why he's so distraught, scared and sick unless you showed them why. A movie that censors all the strong, sensitive moments instead of using them to create drama and very powerful scenes will get destroyed by the critics, and rightfully so. Can you imagine if the movie Titanic hadn't shown people drowning and instead just showed the survivors being sad after the ship sank? Wouldn't it lose its effect a little bit? It would still tell the whole story, but the point of a movie is to make you feel what it was like, not just to tell you.
 
etoile 37 said:
Well because highly emotional dramatic scenes are what make a movie interesting. Otherwise you might as well just read his Wikipedia page. A good movie makes the audience feel what the characters are feeling, and you can achieve that a lot more effectively when you show what they went through than when you just subtly mention it. Michael talked about the pain he suffered during his childhood all the time, he talked about a fear so great he fainted or threw up at the mere sight of his father, yet people still don't understand him or why he was always crying about his lost childhood, sometimes even his own fans downplay the abuse. Some people have to see it and feel it to understand it.
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The truth of the matter is that Joseph Jackson was a ****** tyrant to his children, and a serial adulterer to his wife. He may have formed the first version of his sons' band and helped them get started, but it was Berry Gordy and those around him who treated them with human dignity (not that he was a saint when it came to anyone's deserved royalties). Later, Quincy Jones was instrumental in Michael's early solo success, and after that he was able to flourish more independently.
 
It's September & we don't have a trailer yet? I gotta feeling the movie will be delayed because like... nothing at all has even been spoken of
 
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