Deadline:

Sources are telling us that Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic Michael, from Lionsgate, with a near four-hour cut, could be split into two movies. That’s an option on the table but not a definite at this time.

When you think of Jackson’s life — from Gary, IN, to the Jackson 5, Off the Wall to Thriller, and to his undoing — it’s an epic story worthy of a two parts ala Wicked.

.....

Lionsgate didn’t show footage for Michael yesterday since all these decisions are up in the air for the film, which stars Jackson’s nephew and Jermaine Jackson’s son Jaafar in the title role. Coleman Domingo plays Joe Jackson and Nia Long is Katherine Jackson. More on the cast here for...ned movie.

Another factor in the delay surrounding Michael is the legal and contractual issues around the narrative of the molestation accusations leveled against the “Thriller” star in the early 1990s by the family of then 13-year-old Jordan Chandler (Jackson in 1994 paid the family $20 million with no admission of guilt). The Jackson estate explicitly wanted nothing about Chandler in the film, so fact that the allegations do appear has led to a fierce internal dispute and extensive reshoots, Deadline has confirmed.

RODSERLING said:

Already did a topic about it two months ago

And it's about to lock in 4 days.

TrivialPursuit said:

SoulAlive said:

ShellyMcG said:

SoulAlive said:

A long biopic on MJ is unnecessary.Simply turn it into a Netflix series,spread across two nights and all problems are instantly solved.

Could that even be done though? I imagine it would probably take a lot of work to re-edit a movie down to a limited series. Lionsgate seem to have put a lot of money into this as well so releasing it on a streaming service wouldn't make that money back for them. I'm sure they would rather a cinema release. I agree with you though that a 4 hour MJ biopic seems unnecessary. But that's coming from someone who finds every biopic unnecessary so make of that what you will .

Madonna is writing a biopic of her life and even she is toying with the idea of making it into a TV series instead I don't think that long,expensive biopics are as necessary as they used to be.

...i need nine hours or more...

SoulAlive said:

ShellyMcG said:

SoulAlive said:

Madonna is writing a biopic of her life and even she is toying with the idea of making it into a TV series instead I don't think that long,expensive biopics are as necessary as they used to be.

She's writing it herself? Well, I'm sure that's going to work out well

well,as she would say "Nobody knows my story better than me"

Making it into a multi-night TV series might be a wise move.

A few years ago,I saw the Aretha Franklin biopic starring Jennifer Hudson.It was good but it was only moderately successful and it made me wonder if the era of big biopics may be coming to an end.Might be better (and less expensive) to just do a 2-night series on Netflix.People don't even really go to the movies anymore,unless it's a Marvel film or a big action movie like that

SoulAlive said:

RODSERLING said:

SoulAlive said:

ShellyMcG said:

RODSERLING said:

RODSERLING said:

the thing is....an artists's entire life story doesn't have to be covered in a biopic.The Aretha Franklin biopic ends in 1972,totally ignoring the rest of the 70s and the 80s/90s altogether.MJ's estate could have saved themselves alot of trouble by ending their biopic in,let's say,1988 (during the 'Bad' album era)...lomg before the accusations and other scandals emerged.

SoulAlive said:

ShellyMcG said:

I think THIS movie was a fitting "last hurrah" and it did extremely well (grossing nearly $300 million worldwide).The estate should have quit while they were ahead.

RODSERLING said:

The movie was a good idea, because if done right, it would be a huge surge in sales and streaming, like we never Saw since his death in 2009. In fact, a movie would be the last hurrah.