When Is Leaving Neverland on Again
In 2019, ten years later on his death, Michael Jackson started making headlines again.
The documentary Leaving Neverland revived accusations the so-called Male monarch of Pop was a child molester, prompting lots of debate about where the truth lay and whether you lot could still mind to his music.
While the online conversation has since subsided, that may exist about to alter.
The accusations at the heart of the thing are bubbling upward again — this time over the plans for a sequel.
In case yous've forgotten about Leaving Neverland …
The 4-hour moving-picture show featured 2 men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who had worked with Michael Jackson as children, describing in great detail corruption they allegedly suffered.
When Leaving Neverland premiered in early 2019, information technology prompted an immediate recalibration of Jackson'southward legacy.
These are the same accusations at the middle of a new court fight.
Both Robson and Safechuck had separately sued ii companies Jackson ran, MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, cases that have been winding their way through the courts for years.
Safechuck'southward attempt was thrown out last calendar month, with a US judge saying the companies were not liable for any abuse Safechuck endured every bit a child.
Simply Robson'southward case is continuing and may make information technology to trial in California in 2021.
At present, Robson's instance is the venue for a fight over the sequel
In August, Reed sought permission to flick within the courtroom for a planned sequel to Leaving Neverland, which he says volition be released worldwide after the case is resolved.
Just in a recent 164-page brief filed in the Los Angeles Superior Courtroom, obtained by the ABC, Jackson's squad argued stridently against that in what appeared to be an attempt to scuttle production of another flick.
Central to their argument was a claim that Reed was biased and Leaving Neverland was a one-sided, non-journalistic affair.
The Jackson team said of Reed in its filing:
"Reed is … a filmmaker who intends to make a motion-picture show for profit with a predetermined point of view."
Just Reed hitting dorsum in a divide filing, saying he intended the sequel to be a courtroom drama with "multiple points of view".
He said he tried to interview representatives for Jackson'southward companies and the estate simply was rebuffed.
Jackson's side also argued Reed's bias could bear on how the trial itself played out.
"Witnesses and counsel will nearly certainly be less willing to participate in this case knowing that Reed is filming them … and may later on edit together clips of testimony or argument to fit his pre-determined narrative that they assisted Jackson in the worst crimes imaginable," they wrote.
Jackson'due south lawyers argued Reed was not a journalist from an established media organisation that might otherwise be granted court access.
Reed disputed that, list six BAFTA and five Emmy nominations over a 30-year career that included coverage of terrorism and war.
In a divide filing, Louisa Compton, the head of news and current affairs at Aqueduct 4, which screened Leaving Neverland and is involved in the sequel, said: "It is easy to encounter why they do not want the field of study matter of these films to be reported to the public."
"Nonetheless, every bit much as they may dislike the letters that are being conveyed by these documentaries, nosotros strenuously oppose their efforts to 'shoot the messenger'."
Jackson's lawyers want admission to Reed'due south footage and emails
Lawyers for Jackson's companies are too trying to get hold of documents and footage from Reed, saying they are highly relevant to the case.
They have issued Reed with subpoenas for many things — all the footage shot for Leaving Neverland, whatsoever communication betwixt Reed and anyone he approached about appearing in the movie, and whatever evidence Robson was paid (Reed has denied Robson or Safechuck were paid).
In response, Reed is claiming that as a Great britain resident, he cannot be compelled to hand over those materials, merely Jackson'due south side has said that showed a double standard.
"Reed should not be allowed to take advantage of the court when it suits him (by using the courtroom every bit the canvas for his new flick) but so run away from the court when it inconveniences him."
When the moving-picture show was released, lawyers for Jackson'southward estate and his companies argued the fact Leaving Neverland featured no interest from the Jackson military camp — Robson and Safechuck and members of their families are the simply interviewees — showed Reed's bias.
But Reed has argued that given no accusations were made about Jackson'due south family — and no family members were nowadays when the alleged crimes occurred — at that place was no reason to include their response.
"The printing overwhelmingly establish Leaving Neverland to be a credible, legitimate and timely piece of work of journalism," Reed said in his filing.
Why this skirmish keeps playing out
Jackson is one of the most successful recording artists in history — he still gets tens of millions of monthly listeners on streaming services.
Shortly after Leaving Neverland premiered at Sundance Pic Festival terminal year, at that place were calls to boycott the artist.
Though that movement quickly lost steam, information technology did have some high-contour wins, jeopardising the value of a dorsum catalogue worth hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing and royalties to Jackson'south estate.
Separate to the issue of money is something less tangible: legacy, an increasingly prickly article in the days of cancel culture.
Jackson'southward fanbase is large and fiercely loyal and they run across their role in this fight — in the courts and online — as defending the reputation of a man who is not around to defend himself.
All this adds upwards to a fight that, sequel or no sequel, is showing no signs of subsiding.
Posted , updated
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-06/michael-jacksons-legacy-leaving-neverland-sequel-us-court/12847032
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