Dan Reed, the director of Leaving Neverland, recently criticized Michael Jackson’s planned biopic. The director said that the documentary argued that the biopic will chronicle two accusers’ s*xual abuse claims against Michael Jackson. In a guest column recently published in The Guardian, Dan Reed slammed the decision to a biopic about the music icon.
In the column, the director questioned saying, why “‘no one is talking about ‘canceling’ this movie, which will glorify a man who raped children.'” The director wrote, “It seems that the press, his fans and the vast older demographic who grew up loving Jackson are willing to set aside his unhealthy relationship with children and just go along with the music.”
Reed further directly addresses the filmmaking team, which includes director Antoine Fuqua, and writer John Logan, as well as producers Graham King, John Branca and John McClain, the latter of whom are co-executors of the Michael Jackson estate. Reed challenged whether the film would be able to represent alleged moments of abuse.
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The Emmy-winning Leaving Neverland helmer further asked, “How will you represent the moment when Jackson, a grown man in his 30s, takes a child by the hand and leads him into that bedroom?”
He added, “How will you depict what happens next?” Reed continues that the film ‘sidestepping the question of Jackson’s predilection for sleeping with young boys’ is broadcasting a specific message to survivors of child s*xual abuse. He added, “That message is: if a [pedophile] is rich and popular enough, society will forgive him.”