Jafaar Jackson to play his uncle in Michael Jackson biopic

The upcoming Michael Jackson biopic has found its star, it has been announced – and it’s the nephew of Jackson himself. It was announced a couple of weeks back that Antoine Fuqua had signed on to helm a Michael Jackson biopic for Lionsgate. Reportedly going under the title of Michael, the film is set to be penned by John Logan who has previously worked on the scripts for films such as Skyfall, Hugo and Gladiator. This is a film, we should note, that is being made with the cooperation and endorsement of Jackson’s esate. Whilst it hasn’t yet been revealed which parts of the singer’s career and life will be in focus, it looks like the film might be dealing with Jackson’s rise to fame as a young man. Those theories have been underlined by the casting of Jafaar Jackson in the title role.

I’m humbled and honored to bring my Uncle Michael’s story to life. To all the fans all over the world, I’ll see you soon. 
 
Photo by Jourdynn Jackson pic.twitter.com/Xow9Mkakup

— Jaafar Jackson (@JaafarJackson) January 30, 2023

Jafaar Jackson is Michael Jackson’s nephew and this will mark his first major film role. How Fuqua intends to deal with the allegations that blighted the later stages of Michael Jackson’s career in his film remains to be seen. Early reports suggested that Fuqua would address the allegations of sexual abuse within the wider story of Jackson’s stellar career. However, with the film being made in agreement with Jackson’s estate and being produced by GK Films’ Graham King – who previously oversaw the Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody – it’s likely that the topic will be glossed over. Jafaar Jackson’s age suggests that the film might focus on the singer’s earlier period as a solo artist as Jackson’s nephew is only 26. That said, Austin Butler is only five years older than him and portrayed Elvis Presley throughout much of his life in last year’s Elvis. Speaking of that film, with the last 12 months also marking biopic releases for both Elvis Presley and Whitney Houston, there seems to be no slowdown for a genre that continues to reliably pull audiences into cinemas when other kinds of movies aren’t. We’ll bring you more on Michael as we hear it. The Guardian

Image: BigStock

— Thank you for visiting! If you’d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website: Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here. Buy our Film Stories and Film Junior print magazines here. Become a Patron here.