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

filmandmusic said:
I never heard of Antoine Fuqua which troubles me because I have watched too many movies in my life.

I hope the box office numbers will match Bohemian Rhapsody but that looks like almost impossible. It made 900 million dollars worldwide that is truly unbelievably huge. More realistically numbers of about 400 million seem about right.
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MJ is almost definitely doing that, if not twice that. I guarantee it.
 
Hmm usually Biopics don't do absolutely massive numbers, Bohemian Rhapsody was a one off.

Anything about 250 million will be considered a great success.

Who will play MJ? Whoever it is has to be a fantastic actor and not just a a cheap impression.

I've seen shouts for a few MJ tribute artists to play him, really? You want someone with amateurish or no acting experience at all to play him?

No way!!! It has to be someone as good as Rami Malek was for Freddie or Austin Butler for Elvis.
 
BuffaloBill87 said:
Who will play MJ? Whoever it is has to be a fantastic actor and not just a a cheap impression.
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Big question, I am keeping the faith they will find good people for this. There are too many Michael impersonators out there, many really good, some of them are bound to be good actors too.
 
Breaking news: Bruno Mars will play Michael:
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Biopics bore me so much. It'd be so simple to just release the 4K Victory Tour they show in Thriller 40's docu... but no, let's see an over exaggerated acting by some over rated actor. Booooooooooooooooooooring.
 
Biopics aren’t 100 percent factual. There are some inaccuracies and I expect the same with Michael’s biopic.

The inaccuracies that really annoy me a lot are historical inaccuries. For example, in the Queen biopic, We Will Rock You was recorded and released in 1980, when in reality, it came out in 1977.

In the Michael biopic, I don’t want to see Rock With You shown as released in 1982. That would really annoy me.
 
madmijack said:
Breaking news: Bruno Mars will play Michael:
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I honestly thought today that although imo nobody really resembles MJ (I don't even see much similarity in the most famous impersonators; his appearance is just too striking and special), if I had to choose someone from celebs I know, it'd be Bruno Mars! Based on features and ability to dance, I know nothing about his ability to act.
 
Hulkamaniac said:
Biopics bore me so much. It'd be so simple to just release the 4K Victory Tour they show in Thriller 40's docu... but no, let's see an over exaggerated acting by some over rated actor. Booooooooooooooooooooring.
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I agree, biopics just suck
 
filmandmusic said:
I hope the box office numbers will match Bohemian Rhapsody but that looks like almost impossible. It made 900 million dollars worldwide that is truly unbelievably huge. More realistically numbers of about 400 million seem about right.
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Today, it's rare for a non-IP movie (ig. Marvel/DC/Mission Impossible/Star Wars, etc) to make much money at the box office. Especially post covid. Non-IP movies usually don't stay in the theaters that long, many go to streaming & DVD in a few weeks. So a lot of people wait. Horror is kinda popular but they have lower budgets than a superhero movie, so don't have to make a huge amount to be profitable. I don't think the recent Whitney Houston movie did that much. But she already had several biopics & documetaries, plus there was the 2 night Bobby Brown biopic on BET a few years ago.
 
filmandmusic said:
Yeah I saw some titles but haven't seen any of them. Looks like a typical blockbuster director. I have to admit I wanted some more acclaimed director
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Are you expecting some kind of art film like that Bob Dylan movie where he's played by a woman and a Black teenager? That really won't make any money, lol.
turtleneck_sweater said:
I honestly thought today that although imo nobody really resembles MJ (I don't even see much similarity in the most famous impersonators; his appearance is just too striking and special), if I had to choose someone from celebs I know, it'd be Bruno Mars! Based on features and ability to dance, I know nothing about his ability to act.
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Angela Bassett looks nothing like Tina Turner or Katherine Jackson. So I don't think that having a lookalike is that important. But I don't know how they're going to do the vitiligo years. I don't know of any other biopics that had that issue. All the other movies had was to use makeup to age an actor if the film takes place over several decades or wigs for different hairdos.

Bruno Mars is short and is Puerto Rican & Filipino, so not the same race. That won't work. This is not the days of John Wayne playing Genghis Khan or Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese guy or Judy Garland in blackface.
 
DuranDuran said:
Are you expecting some kind of art film like that Bob Dylan movie where he's played by a woman and a Black teenager? That really won't make any money, lol.

Angela Bassett looks nothing like Tina Turner or Katherine Jackson. So I don't think that having a lookalike is that important. But I don't know how they're going to do the vitiligo years. I don't know of any other biopics that had that issue. All the other movies had was to use makeup to age an actor if the film takes place over several decades or wigs for different hairdos.

Bruno Mars is short and is Puerto Rican & Filipino, so not the same race. That won't work. This is not the days of John Wayne playing Genghis Khan or Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese guy or Judy Garland in blackface.
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You're right. I didn't know it about Mars but I know it has to be an African-American actor as MJ himself has stated. My mistake, not a conscious one. I'd like the actor to resemble MJ to some degree at least.
I am also scared of the handling of vitiligo. Maybe there'll be an African-American actor with vitiligo or albinism to replace the one who plays the earlier years? Maybe they'll just use makeup? We'll see.
 
turtleneck_sweater said:
You're right. I didn't know it about Mars but I know it has to be an African-American actor as MJ himself has stated. My mistake, not a conscious one. I'd like the actor to resemble MJ to some degree at least.
I am also scared of the handling of vitiligo. Maybe there'll be an African-American actor with vitiligo or albinism to replace the one who plays the earlier years? Maybe they'll just use makeup? We'll see.
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The people I've seen with it had spots, they weren't all the same color. They had both their original color and the discolorations. I went to school with a few people who had it, but I didn't know what it was called at the time. Albinos look different than someone with vitiligo. I don't know how switching actors as an adult would work. Biopics do that using children/teens for the younger years.
 
DuranDuran said:
The people I've seen with it had spots, they weren't all the same color. They had both their original color and the discolorations. I went to school with a few people who had it, but I didn't know what it was called at the time. Albinos look different than someone with vitiligo. I don't know how switching actors as an adult would work. Biopics do that using children/teens for the younger years.
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They had both their original color and the discolorations
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Just like Michael. They can use makeup.

Albinos look different than someone with vitiligo.
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They have light skin and are black. One could wear a wig and dark contact lenses. You say actors in biopics don't have to look similar, then you say that people with vitiligo and albinism don't look enough like Michael.

Biopics do that using children/teens for the younger years.
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"The Crown" switched actors as adults. A biopic about a Polish artist did that lately too. Even if nobody had done it before, I don't see why the Michael movie wouldn't.

Just like I said before, I worry about the casting. Because of being respectful to MJ and also because there will always be people who are never satisfied with any choice.
 
I just hope Dan Reed will not come up with his LN sequel movie the same time around. That could destroy everything!
 
turtleneck_sweater said:
Just like Michael. They can use makeup.
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Well they can also use makeup on an actor without vitiligo. Today they can even CGI it. If they can turn people blue or purple, or motion capture people into monkeys (the newer Planet Of The Apes) & the Hulk or make an old actor look young, then vitiligo shouldn't be a problem. It would make the movie more expensive though, especially if it's going to be a lot of time in the movie. That's why I think The Jacksons: An American Dream ends at the right time. The stuff after the Victory Tour is pretty well documented anyway.
turtleneck_sweater said:
They have light skin and are black.
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Not necessarily, Edgar & Johnny Winter are white albinos
 
turtleneck_sweater said:
I honestly thought today that although imo nobody really resembles MJ (I don't even see much similarity in the most famous impersonators; his appearance is just too striking and special), if I had to choose someone from celebs I know, it'd be Bruno Mars! Based on features and ability to dance, I know nothing about his ability to act.
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This actually isn't a bad idea. I think he could definitely pull it off. It would help too, I think, that Bruno is beloved all over the world.
 
How would you guys tackle the changing appearance/vitiligo issue? This might sound silly but I was thinking, with today's technology, how hard would be to gradually change his skin colour and features via the use of that rather then multiple actors and makeup?
 
Smooth72 said:
They must have someone in mind to
Play MJ. Omer Bhatti?
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Are you having a giraffe? (Laugh)

Seriously? What part of 'serious' acting don't you get?

Ahh fck it, let's get Navi on board to play MJ and have Jason Malachi on vocals.

Honestly I'm scared by this type of comment 🤣 You're not gonna have a big budget Hollywood film and put someone who couldn't act as the star.

If Omer Bhatti is your star, I'd rather have Myles Frost as MJ , it wouldn't surprise me if he actually auditions for the role.
 
turtleneck_sweater said:
I honestly thought today that although imo nobody really resembles MJ (I don't even see much similarity in the most famous impersonators; his appearance is just too striking and special), if I had to choose someone from celebs I know, it'd be Bruno Mars! Based on features and ability to dance, I know nothing about his ability to act.
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Bruno Mars isn't black. Big "nope" from me.
 
turtleneck_sweater said:
Sorry! Didn't know that. Someone let me know in this thread. I didn't mean any harm.
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No harm taken, just wanted to point it out. If I seemed angry, I wasn't, really... It's just that it's unfortunately very common that people tend to just... seem to forget that Michael was a black man. Heck, remember when they tried to get a white actor to play him in some weird British show? Ughhhhhhhh 💀 Like yeah, I get that his skin color changed and whatnot, but aside from the obvious fact that one can't change their race, everything else about Michael was still very much "black". His music, his dancing, his vocal style... Even the way he spoke at times. So I tend to get a little snippy at this sorta thing, even though it's not always intentional. I also hadn't fully caught up so I missed the fact that others pointed it out as well. So I need to apologize a bit, too.

Re: the subject, I am not too invested in this project admittedly (though we'll see; I have no expectations, whether positive or negative), but I stand by what I said about just using light makeup and the like, it seems like the best solution. I don't see it as "whitewashing" because like... Michael's skin simply turned lighter, it's a fact. As long as he's still played by a black actor, I do not see the problem. Vitiligo isn't a very common disorder I don't think, so finding an actor who has it, together with Benoquin treatment to boot, might be difficult (not impossible, but still hard).

Also re: upthread, aside from the fact that I wouldn't want Omer Bhatti playing Michael to begin with, he isn't black either, so...
 
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DangerousGal91 said:
No harm taken, just wanted to point it out. If I seemed angry, I wasn't, really... It's just that it's unfortunately very common that people tend to just... seem to forget that Michael was a black man. Heck, remember when they tried to get a white actor to play him in some weird British show? Ughhhhhhhh 💀 Like yeah, I get that his skin color changed and whatnot, but aside from the obvious fact that one can't change their race, everything else about Michael was still very much "black". His music, his dancing, his vocal style... Even the way he spoke at times. So I tend to get a little snippy at this sorta thing, even though it's not always intentional. I also hadn't fully caught up so I missed the fact that others pointed it out as well. So I need to apologize a bit, too.

Re: the subject, I am not too invested in this project admittedly (though we'll see; I have no expectations, whether positive or negative), but I stand by what I said about just using light makeup and the like, it seems like the best solution. I don't see it as "whitewashing" because like... Michael's skin simply turned lighter, it's a fact. As long as he's still played by a black actor, I do not see the problem. Vitiligo isn't a very common disorder I don't think, so finding an actor who has it, together with Benoquin treatment to boot, might be difficult (not impossible, but still hard.).
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Casting a non-black actor would be 100% disrespectful (and after he said it himself he should be portrayed by a black actor, it'd be 200% disrespectful).
I'd never forget MJ was black. I only thought Mars also was.
 
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