*Anyone waiting for the highly anticipated Michael Jackson biopic to arrive in theaters will have to be patient. All because of legal drama surrounding the breach of a legal agreement related to one of the singing legend’s child abuse accusers.
RadarOnline reports the drama stems from the accuser, Jordan Chandler, being portrayed in the $150 million movie. The outlet referenced a $ 20 million settlement and non-disclosure agreement with Jackson in 1994, where the “Thriller” vocalist’s lawyers agreed to not discuss the details of the settlement deal or depict the Chandlers in any future film.
Jackson’s lawyer, John Branca, is the man over Jackson’s estate. The California-based residence is worth an estimated $2.4billion. From the looks of it, Branca appears to have “dropped the ball” after claiming the forthcoming film, titled “Michael,” which centers around Jackson’s life, would become “the largest-grossing, most acclaimed biopic in the history of Hollywood.”
“This is a law school error,” a Hollywood source told Radar about the violation of the agreement. “How on earth could these scenes have been filmed with an NDA in place? His legal team has dropped the ball.
“Also it shines the light back on Jackson and the allegations of sexual abuse once more and that could really cause harm to his estate as it continues to make huge sums of money,” the source continued. “The great and the good in Hollywood have been left scratching their heads over this debacle.”
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Further chronicling the history of Jackson’s estate, Radar touched on the place being what was thought to be the largest figure recorded by a celebrity estate in 2016 at $825 million. In 2024, the estate pulled in an estimated $600 million via streams including music, royalties, theatrical shows, and merchandise.
As a result, Jackson returned to the top of Forbes magazine’s “highest-paid dead celebrities” chart, with Queen frontman Freddie Mercury at No. 2 and children’s author Dr. Seuss third.
On the big screen, Jackson’s “This Is It,” which transformed rehearsal footage of the singer’s uncompleted tour of the same name into a documentary, brought in $261 million at the box office. Theatrically, “MJ the Musical,” which opened on Broadway in 2022 and London’s West End in 2024, has grossed more than $230million, winning four Tonys and becoming one of the most lucrative stage musicals in history.
In 2024, Sony bought half of Jackson’s back catalog for about $650 million.
News surrounding Chandler’s breach of contract case comes as “Michael” was announced earlier to be released in theaters on Oct. 3. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the biopic stars Jackson’s nephew Jaafar Jackson playing his late uncle.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: Antoine Fuqua-Directed Michael Jackson Biopic (‘Michael’) Now Set for Fall 2025 Release | WATCH
