Controversial MJ Documentary Leaving Neverland [GENERAL DISCUSSION THREAD]

myosotis;4285209 said:
L (and I cannot emphasize this enough..!!) OL :devil:

Doc Makers Dan Reed & Nick Broomfield Threaten Legal Action As Their Films Feature In Kew Media Fire Sale

EXCLUSIVE: Two of the UK’s best-known documentary makers, Dan Reed and Nick Broomfield, are locked in an increasingly ugly dispute with the collapsed Kew Media Group over the international rights to their biggest films.

Kew Media Group’s sales house, Kew Media Distribution, represented Reed’s Leaving Neverland — HBO and Channel 4’s Emmy-winning film on historic sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson — as well as a catalog of 30 Broomfield documentaries, including his BBC and Showtime film Whitney: Can I Be Me.

The Canadian production and distribution empire crumbled in February and administrator FTI Consulting was called in to sell off the company’s assets, including Kew Media Distribution’s library of content. Prior to the collapse, Reed and Broomfield took action to terminate their contracts with Kew Media Distribution after it failed to pay them royalties on international sales, but Deadline understands that FTI is insisting that the deals are still valid.

As such, the administrator is selling Kew Media Distribution’s catalog of 1,000 titles with Leaving Neverland and Broomfield’s projects included. Deadline has been told by four sources that final bids were accepted last Friday, with a number of interested parties circling. One person said the library was initially valued at up to £2M ($2.5M), but this has dropped significantly during the sales process, which has been fraught with complication due to rights disputes with producers.

With FTI expected to make a decision on the sale imminently, Reed and Broomfield have told Deadline that they will not allow their work to be included in the deal. Both said they would be prepared to go to court if whoever buys Kew Media Distribution’s library tries to exploit the global rights to their films.

“Way before Kew went into administration, we terminated the Leaving Neverland distribution contract for non-payment. They owe us a really significant chunk of money,” Amos Pictures boss Reed said. “We terminated that contract under English law, so I’m flabbergasted that the administrators now consider that that title is theirs to sell.”

He added: “I want to put them on notice that they are not entitled to sell that film. It’s outrageous that having fallen down on their obligations and following a notice of termination, issued in accordance with the law, that they’re still pressing on with pretending they’re entitled to sell the program.”


“We’re a small company and Leaving Neverland is a big title. I’ve gone to considerable personal risk by going up against the Jackson estate. That is not something that you do lightly. I’m not going to let somebody take it away from me.”

In a message to the companies bidding on the Kew Media Distribution library, Broomfield said: “This is my life’s work and I will strenuously defend that. We have terminated with Kew. Don’t think that you’re going to be able to buy my library because you can’t… I will do whatever I need to do to protect my rights on my work. My lawyer is already handling negotiations and we will take this as far as we need to.”

Both Reed and Broomfield are arguing that Kew Media Distribution’s failure to pay royalties represented a “repudiatory breach” of contract, a legal term that means the breach is deemed so serious that the aggrieved party can simply end the arrangement. Both have consulted with their lawyers in reaching this conclusion. However, Paul Hastings LLP, the law firm representing FTI, disagrees and has made clear that FTI intends to continue commercial discussions regarding distribution arrangements.

An FTI spokesman said: “The joint administrators, alongside their legal counsel, are in the process of considering all the distribution and licensing arrangements in place including between various producers and Kew. Any claims to termination or otherwise will be dealt with in accordance with the terms of the relevant distribution agreements. We appreciate the continued patience of producers and customers, as we continue to work through a complex situation with over 1,000 titles.”

Reed and Broomfield said they intend to find new distribution partners for their work. Reed said he is also continuing to chase the money he is owed for the sales of Leaving Neverland. “We will get together and if necessary combine with the other creditors to fight and recover as much as possible from the sale of Kew and its assets,” he said.

Broomfield argued that it was Kew Media Group, rather than the distribution arm, that was at fault for the payment issues, which he said stretched back to autumn last year. He was waiting on a “big payment” from Netflix for the Whitney Houston documentary, but it did not materialize for months. Other money did not arrive at all, meaning he had issues funding films including his latest project: a follow-up to 2002’s Biggie & Tupac focusing on Suge Knight, the former head of Death Row Records.

In an in-depth report on Kew Media Group’s collapse, Deadline revealed that the company was dipping into the accounts of its distributors, Kew Media Distribution and TCB Media Rights, to cash flow the business when it ran into financial difficulty last year. The empire is currently being broken up piece-by-piece, with producers including Essential Media Group and Collins Avenue exiting. TCB, the profitable UK distributor, is on the brink of an exit, while Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions is another asset that will be sold.

https://deadline.com/2020/04/dan-re...ction-kew-media-distribution-sale-1202897389/

Is this a good thing?
 
Michael had a crooked smile but his face wasn't falling apart. he also had diseases. he was gorgeous inside out. screw the media. they been saying crap about his face for decades.

i don't wanna get into it. but you know the stories by now.
 
Is this a good thing?

Depends how you feel about Reed having to spend time and money trying to get his rights to LN back, or possibly losing the rights to someone else.
Kew media apparently hasn't paid him what they should have done for distributing the film, so he's already lost money (maybe by $1million or more).
If Reed has to pay lawyers to fight the KM administrators to get NL rights back, he'll be spending big. Plus he's obviously spending time and effort when he could be doing something else.
If someone else buys LN, they won't necessarily pay Reed what Kew Media owes him, so he'll still have lost money.
 
does anyone remember the old tv (hard copy?) video where they show workers driving into Neverland for building up the train station? and this was in 1993? hahaha

i cant find the video, please help!
 
Not related to LN directly, but someone who was planning a negative book about MJ, and who is part of the anti-MJ media:

'Radioactive’ National Enquirer Alum Dylan Howard Ousted by AMI

After a series of scandals, the hot-tempered former Enquirer editor’s contract has not been renewed—and some former colleagues at the troubled company are cheering.

n what could be yet another omen of impending demise for financially strapped American Media Inc., publisher of the National Enquirer and nearly a dozen other celebrity tabloids and glossy magazines, longtime top editor Dylan Howard has been abruptly ousted from the troubled company.

The 38-year-old native Australian has been a magnet for controversy, most recently over his alleged attempt (which Howard denied) to blackmail Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos with photos of Bezos’ genitals.

Howard addressed the Bezos flap—apparently his most recent public statement—in a Columbia Journalism Review story from last fall by Simon van Zuylen-Wood, who approached him at a party for his book-length rehash on the death of Princess Diana.

..............Howard was also exposed by New Yorker writer Ronan Farrow for his secret intelligence-gathering work to discredit actress Rose McGowan on behalf of convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.

In order to avoid criminal exposure, Howard took an immunity deal with federal prosecutors, along with that of AMI chief executive David Pecker, to cooperate with an investigation into AMI’s alleged campaign finance violations on behalf of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

According to multiple sources, Trump acolyte Pecker, who on March 28 announced a 23 percent across-the-board pay cut in a company-wide email, told his longtime corporate wingman last week that Howard’s rumored $500,000-plus annual contract would not be renewed as of Wednesday, April 1. Variety first reported Howard’s departure from AMI, which he joined in 2009 after a checkered career as a television reporter in Australia.

The hard-driving, hot-tempered Howard was not universally popular among his AMI colleagues, and his exit was greeted as a rare bright spot by some employees as they took a substantial financial hit—which Pecker blamed on the coronavirus pandemic—and faced the prospect of unemployment.

.....A former top AMI executive noted that Howard was still the subject of an ongoing FBI probe into allegations AMI extorted and blackmailed Bezos—potentially placing him in breach of his non-prosecution agreement with the Southern District of New York.

“On one hand Pecker must be glad he is gone,” said this former AMI executive, “but on the other hand you have to wonder, does he have files or recordings or other stuff that could incriminate David?”

AMI typically makes employees sign stringent non-disclosure agreements when they leave the organization, and it was unclear Monday if Howard—who in December 2017 purchased a $1.1 million house in tony East Hampton, New York—had signed such an agreement. Howard didn’t respond to a text and voicemail requesting comment on his ouster, and a spokesman for Pecker told The Daily Beast that the “company has not responded.”

Howard, who was removed as editor of the Enquirer last year, became a senior vice president at AMI in charge of developing true-crime projects and television deals, as well as hosting a podcast. Despite AMI’s increasingly dire situation—especially a reported $100 million sale of The National Enquirer that hasn’t closed nearly a year after it was announced—Howard seems not to have predicted his exit.

As recently as two months ago, The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Howard was “in the midst of repositioning himself as a Hollywood player, developing multiple projects in the white-hot true-crime arena. And, intriguingly, he is doing so with the support of a group of industry stalwarts—including Endeavor, Megyn Kelly and Dr. Phil McGraw—who had, until recently, been at the mercy of his notorious reporting tactics.”

Yet none of those various touted arrangements have produced a profit, according to AMI insiders.

One of them, a proposed reality show starring accused rapist and pedophile R. Kelly, resulted in unwelcome publicity for AMI this past November, when The Daily Beast reported on an audio recording that showed Howard had proposed an elaborate scheme to secretly funnel more than $1 million to the disgraced R&B singer for his cooperation on a documentary he hoped AMI would sell.

...........“The Enquirer is worth nothing now. It’s worth pennies on the dollar,” said one. “There’s no way the deal closes.”

A former colleague of Howard and Pecker, meanwhile, said their willingness to put AMI properties at the service of Trump—the beneficiary of the Enquirer’s first-ever presidential campaign endorsement—and kill juicy stories about such celebrities as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in exchange for deals and favors, damaged the brand with once-loyal readers.

... “From the perspective of the old tabloid business, Dylan and Pecker destroyed it,” said the former colleague. “It’s one thing keeping Arnie or Sly on the side and covering things up, but another if it’s Trump. It blew up in their faces.”

The immunity deal gave Pecker and Howard protection from prosecution over their involvement in a “catch and kill” arrangement with former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, who also claimed she had an affair with Trump and who was paid $150,000 by AMI.

“As for Dylan, he is radioactive,” predicted the former AMI executive. “Who is going to employ him now?”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/national-enquirer-alum-dylan-howard-reportedly-ousted-by-ami

--------------------------------------------------------------------
His book on MJ is still listed on Amazon as planned for June this year.


Bad: An Unprecedented Investigation Into the Michael Jackson Cover-Up (Front Page Detectives)
by Dylan Howard | 2 Jun 2020
An Inside View into the Dark Side of a Music Icon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Unprec...'dylan+howard'&qid=1586288992&s=books&sr=1-12
 
It never fails for those who bother MJ and their motives. He needs to let that book go. Already look like a fool. He will just look desperate in bothering MJ to make a profit. That horse (accusing MJ) is dead now and tiresome. And he was connected to Harvey Weinstein. Dylan better have a seat. he will be eaten alive. He needs to write a book about himself and all the trash he did which is a fact.
 
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..and while we're on the topic of tabloid print media... this is a UK tabloid. (And the online figures probably only average out at about 1 million per day).

Sun's owner reports £68m loss as paper sales fall

Daily sales of the Sun fell 8% to 1.38 million in the year to July, but it remains the UK's top paid-for paper.

Meanwhile, the Sun on Sunday sold an average of 1.16 million copies a week, 111,000 fewer than the year before.

The paper's owner, News Group Newspapers also revealed a £26.7m legal bill related to phone hacking.

"Following the allegations of voicemail interception and inappropriate payments to public officials, there have been a number of civil cases against the company, most of which have been settled, or are in the process of being settled," the firm said.

The News of the World was closed in 2011 after it was revealed that it had obtained stories by listening in to the private voicemail messages of celebrities and even the murdered teenager Milly Dowler.

Despite falling sales of the print edition, News Group Newspapers said more people were visiting the Sun's website.

It said 32.8 million adults in the UK visited the site a month, 3.6 million more than the previous year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51608099
 
That Dylan Howard b@$^#% deserves to be on the H8T list.
 
Not forgetting that LN started with Channel 4 TV (UK).... Hopefully they won't want to fund LN2. (Channel 4 is one of the commercial channels, and advertisers have slashed their advertising budgets, especially since things like travel and car sales have fallen off a cliff.) It's a pity that the LN commissioning editors T Porter and D Pearl no longer work at Channel 4.

UK’s Channel 4 To Slash Content Budget By $185M As It Is Ravaged By Coronavirus Pandemic

British commercial broadcaster Channel 4 has outlined an emergency cost-cutting plan in its bid to weather the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic.

In an all-staff conference call on Wednesday afternoon, Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon outlined measures to slash the broadcaster’s 2020 content budget by £150M ($185M) and find £95M of operational savings, including reviewing investments and cutting marketing spend.

Channel 4 added that it will furlough around 10% of staff (around 100 people) across all areas of the business, and draw down on its £75M emergency credit facility for the first time since it was set up in 2018. As reported earlier this week, senior managers and board members will also have their pay reduced by 20%, while a recruitment freeze has also been put in place.

The mission to cut costs comes against the backdrop of a huge downturn in the advertising market, from which Channel 4 makes 95% of its revenue. Channel 4 said ad spend is down more than 50% in April and May, which was more severe than an estimate of 40% from revered UK research firm Enders Analysis this week. It has left Channel 4 brutally exposed, particularly given that the company has spent more than £50M of its £180M in cash reserves on relocating out of London.

Mahon said: “As a commercially funded business the COVID-19 outbreak has had a severe impact on our advertising revenues and so we are taking action now to manage our costs appropriately and ensure that we both protect our staff and our ongoing ability to serve our audience.

“We know that these are exceptionally challenging times for everyone in the UK, particularly many of the producers, talent and freelancers we work with across the television and creative industries and we are committed to safeguarding our long-term ability to invest in distinctive and challenging content and create jobs and opportunities in the sector across the UK.”

...The broadcaster said that its commissioning tempo will slow down over the coming weeks and months to reflect the budget cuts, but it has committed to spending £10M on coronavirus shows and will ring-fence £3M of development funding across 2020. In both cases, half the money will be spent with small, nations and regions or diverse production companies.

Katz said: “The coronavirus crisis has hit all commercial broadcasters with a double whammy of lost production and dramatically reduced revenues but it also poses a profound creative challenge which our indie partners have risen to with remarkable ingenuity, speed and resourcefulness. ................

https://deadline.com/2020/04/channel-4-coronavirus-cost-cutting-plan-1202903441/
 
myosotis;4285815 said:
..and while we're on the topic of tabloid print media... this is a UK tabloid. (And the online figures probably only average out at about 1 million per day).

Sun's owner reports £68m loss as paper sales fall

Daily sales of the Sun fell 8% to 1.38 million in the year to July, but it remains the UK's top paid-for paper.

Meanwhile, the Sun on Sunday sold an average of 1.16 million copies a week, 111,000 fewer than the year before.

The paper's owner, News Group Newspapers also revealed a £26.7m legal bill related to phone hacking.

"Following the allegations of voicemail interception and inappropriate payments to public officials, there have been a number of civil cases against the company, most of which have been settled, or are in the process of being settled," the firm said.

The News of the World was closed in 2011 after it was revealed that it had obtained stories by listening in to the private voicemail messages of celebrities and even the murdered teenager Milly Dowler.

Despite falling sales of the print edition, News Group Newspapers said more people were visiting the Sun's website.

It said 32.8 million adults in the UK visited the site a month, 3.6 million more than the previous year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51608099
News of the world was another piece of trash. Glad it failed and faded away.
 
I wouldnt wish the current virus on anyone but if a certain group of people that were involved in a certain trash doc got it, I wouldnt be sad.
 
Another little nugget of info in this article about the fire-sale of Kew Media components and assets. The investors are nursing huge losses. (Wouldn't it be nice if this is a preliminary to HBO losing a similar amount in the Estate's Court case sometime in the future!):

The documents filed by FTI also revealed sale details for other companies formerly owned by Kew, as FTI looks to recoup what it can of the US$113 million owed to the syndicate of lenders led by Truist Bank. The syndicate also consists of Bank of Montreal and Toronto-Dominion Bank.

FTI says that, after recouping certain costs through the sale of Kew’s assets, the syndicate will suffer a shortfall in excess of $90 million.

https://realscreen.com/2020/04/08/ontario-court-to-rule-on-sale-of-kew-owned-distributor-tcb/
 
Dear God. I'm arguing with some moron on Reddit about Michael being guilty.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/fx5hn4/which_conspiracy_theory_do_you_believe_is_true/

^Someone responded to this thread saying they think Sony killed MJ - as per the topic. And most people on there are stating his innocence, but still. A couple guys are obsessed with stating otherwise.

The sheer imagination some people have. The amazing thing is that they treat you as if you're the conspiracy theorist - yet they're the ones who, the second you present actual evidence via FBI/court docs/etc. - they get all wide eyed and start rattling off how "Well, MJ just got to them! He paid off everyone probably. And then he hid his kiddie porn and paid off his workers to deny it all."

Isn't that...what conspiracy-theorists do...?

Never in my life would I ever have thought that I'd be the one being accused for being a nutter for siding with the FBI, police, a grand jury and mountains of evidence of credible origins and testimony.

And what is it with that Vanity Fair article that just won't die?! That's everyone's go-to.

Here's also what I don't get - why are some people as fixated and obsessed with preaching their gospel about a pop star they don't like...being guilty? 12 years after his death?

If you're a fan, defending him makes sense. But being obsessed with proving to the world a guy you hate is a pedophile - that's an odd hobby.
 
DangerUs'91;4285970 said:
Dear God. I'm arguing with some moron on Reddit about Michael being guilty.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/fx5hn4/which_conspiracy_theory_do_you_believe_is_true/

^Someone responded to this thread saying they think Sony killed MJ - as per the topic. And most people on there are stating his innocence, but still. A couple guys are obsessed with stating otherwise.

The sheer imagination some people have. The amazing thing is that they treat you as if you're the conspiracy theorist - yet they're the ones who, the second you present actual evidence via FBI/court docs/etc. - they get all wide eyed and start rattling off how "Well, MJ just got to them! He paid off everyone probably. And then he hid his kiddie porn and paid off his workers to deny it all."

Isn't that...what conspiracy-theorists do...?

Never in my life would I ever have thought that I'd be the one being accused for being a nutter for siding with the FBI, police, a grand jury and mountains of evidence of credible origins and testimony.

And what is it with that Vanity Fair article that just won't die?! That's everyone's go-to.

Here's also what I don't get - why are some people as fixated and obsessed with preaching their gospel about a pop star they don't like...being guilty? 12 years after his death?

If you're a fan, defending him makes sense. But being obsessed with proving to the world a guy you hate is a pedophile - that's an odd hobby.

I’d report that moron off for it. He had no f:censored:king life anyways.
 
Dear God. I'm arguing with some moron on Reddit about Michael being guilty.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/fx5hn4/which_conspiracy_theory_do_you_believe_is_true/

^Someone responded to this thread saying they think Sony killed MJ - as per the topic. And most people on there are stating his innocence, but still. A couple guys are obsessed with stating otherwise.

The sheer imagination some people have. The amazing thing is that they treat you as if you're the conspiracy theorist - yet they're the ones who, the second you present actual evidence via FBI/court docs/etc. - they get all wide eyed and start rattling off how "Well, MJ just got to them! He paid off everyone probably. And then he hid his kiddie porn and paid off his workers to deny it all."

Isn't that...what conspiracy-theorists do...?

Never in my life would I ever have thought that I'd be the one being accused for being a nutter for siding with the FBI, police, a grand jury and mountains of evidence of credible origins and testimony.

And what is it with that Vanity Fair article that just won't die?! That's everyone's go-to.

Here's also what I don't get - why are some people as fixated and obsessed with preaching their gospel about a pop star they don't like...being guilty? 12 years after his death?

If you're a fan, defending him makes sense. But being obsessed with proving to the world a guy you hate is a pedophile - that's an odd hobby.

To create drama or it is a reflection of what they are.
 
My favorite new reaction video for all things LN. :laughing:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">2 minutes after I open up Twitter every morning <a href="https://t.co/YjVuo1tach">pic.twitter.com/YjVuo1tach</a></p>&mdash; Philip DeFranco (@PhillyD) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhillyD/status/1247561102025621505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 7, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Dear God. I'm arguing with some moron on Reddit about Michael being guilty.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/fx5hn4/which_conspiracy_theory_do_you_believe_is_true/

^Someone responded to this thread saying they think Sony killed MJ - as per the topic. And most people on there are stating his innocence, but still. A couple guys are obsessed with stating otherwise.

The sheer imagination some people have. The amazing thing is that they treat you as if you're the conspiracy theorist - yet they're the ones who, the second you present actual evidence via FBI/court docs/etc. - they get all wide eyed and start rattling off how "Well, MJ just got to them! He paid off everyone probably. And then he hid his kiddie porn and paid off his workers to deny it all."

Isn't that...what conspiracy-theorists do...?

Never in my life would I ever have thought that I'd be the one being accused for being a nutter for siding with the FBI, police, a grand jury and mountains of evidence of credible origins and testimony.

And what is it with that Vanity Fair article that just won't die?! That's everyone's go-to.

Here's also what I don't get - why are some people as fixated and obsessed with preaching their gospel about a pop star they don't like...being guilty? 12 years after his death?

If you're a fan, defending him makes sense. But being obsessed with proving to the world a guy you hate is a pedophile - that's an odd hobby.
Em.. Reddit..I wouldn't touch that site with a 10 ft pole...
for the sake of preserving my own sanity.
If you asked me..think they're bunch of Rabid conspirarcy theorists...
devour the carp outta of you, in so much as having merely
sounded with some semblance of an iota of opposing them
 
My favorite new reaction video for all things LN. :laughing:
Think I'm late to the Twitter party, any indication he's pro MJ or what?..
coz just from that snippet it's anyone guess whose side is he on? Michael?...
like I said I'm late keeping up da dude's tweets

 
christy;4286019 said:
Think I'm late to the Twitter party, any indication he's pro MJ or what?..
coz just from that snippet it's anyone guess whose side is he on? Michael?...
like I said I'm late keeping up da dude's tweets

I don&#8217;t know that guy, and I don&#8217;t know what this video was originally about. But &#8220;Facts matter&#8221; can be applied anywhere we like, I guess. ;)
 
To make you smile: Nice little media snippet, from USA radio station 'anchor' Derek Deis on Twitter. (Nothing to do with UK Channel 4 TV)

(Derek Deis anchors Good Morning Northwest with Robyn Nance and Mark Peterson Monday through Friday.
Previously Derek served as Sports Director, having joined the 4 News Now family in June of 2009 after nearly five years as a sports anchor/reporter for KHQ-TV. He won an Emmy award for sports reporting in 2009.)

Anchoring from home, day five. #MichaelJackson #Thriller socks! And yes, things have finally devolved to the point that I’m wearing shorts “in studio.” #4NewsNow #WFH #WorkingFromHome #AMNewsers #SockGame

Sadly I can't post the image, but he is indeed wearing knee-high MJ Thriller socks :)
 
myosotis;4286042 said:
Sadly I can't post the image, but he is indeed wearing knee-high MJ Thriller socks :)

Why not? I want to see the socks! Can&#8217;t leave us all hanging like that! Pic or it didn&#8217;t happen! :laughing:
 
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