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Michael Jackson Estate Violated Legal Agreement With Accuser — Now Biopic Needs a New Script: Report

Michael Jackson biopic 'Michael' delayed after estate reveals 1993 legal agreement with child accuser that original script and footage violates.

While they get their schedules aligned once again, Lionsgate is waiting on a new script rewritten to address the film’s recently-revealed violation of a legal agreement between representatives for Jackson and Jordan Chandler, who accused him of molestation in 1993 and later received a $20 million settlement. They were told only after the Financial Times published a report in September 2024 uncovering payments the Jackson estate made to five other accusers to keep them quiet after HBO released the documentary Leaving Neverland in 2019. In February 2023, the documentary’s director Dan Reed penned an op-ed in the Guardian stating that the film “will glorify a man who raped children.”

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