While a potential “Michael” sequel will move the story of Michael Jackson forward, it may also double back on the King of Pop’s life to cover moments that weren’t chronicled in the box office smash.
On Lionsgate’s earnings call on Thursday, film chair Adam Fogelson said progress is underway on a “Michael 2” with all the various parties involved.
“We are really excited about the progress we’re making with respect to a second ‘Michael’ film. All the conversations that we’ve been having with all of the appropriate parties continue to go exceptionally well, and I would say that there is a ton of incredibly entertaining Michael Jackson story left — and much of the biggest and most popular parts of his music catalog that were not touched upon in the first film,” he said.
“I would just say we can go forwards and backwards in telling this story. There are so many other events that happened, even in the time frame of the original movie, that weren’t touched upon, so we’re very, very confident that we’ve got an incredibly entertaining movie that will appeal once again to a global audience as the pieces come together,” Fogelson continued.
The executive added that the studio already has about 25-30% of a sequel already shot, owing to the fact that the third act of the original “Michael” had to be scrapped after production when it was discovered that the Michael Jackson estate could not legally depict events involving one of Jackson’s accusers.
It remains to be seen if director Antoine Fuqua will return to direct the “Michael” sequel. He has said he’d like to come back, but he just started production on a “Hannibal” film for Netflix with Denzel Washington, so if Lionsgate want to move quickly on the next “Michael” movie he may be tied up.
After the aforementioned clause was discovered, Fuqua, writer John Logan and producer Graham King had to come together and rework the second half of “Michael,” which was originally intended to chronicle the sexual abuse allegations lodged against the pop star.
The reworked film, which involved a month of additional photography, ended in 1988 during Jackson’s “Bad” tour. The Lionsgate release has been a smash hit, grossing over $713 million worldwide.
