In the midst of Michael releasing, Dan Reed, who was used to a very different type of filmmaking — tailored to war and terrorism — tried his hand at tackling a more localized crime; Michael Jackson’s child sex allegations. The four-hour documentary, Leaving Neverland, seemed like it would derail the King of Pop’s muddy-but-still-loved reputation. But, that didn’t happen.
Nearly a decade later, Reed has come out to The Hollywood Reporter to explain why it seems people are easily swayed to forget the accusations. Simply put, people “just don’t care.” In large part, after Leaving Neverland, the late artist’s music saw an increase in streams, the MJ Broadway show is a hit, and it seems like yeah, nothing can really dissuade people from seeing the artist in a fond manner.
“It says that people don’t care that he was a child molester. Literally, people just don’t care.”
What happened to Leaving Neverland?
You may have also noticed that Leaving Neverland quietly disappeared from HBO. This wasn’t some malicious — generally speaking — choice from the streamer, instead, it all circles back to a contract they signed with the Michael Jackson Estate complete with a non-disparagement clause centered around a concert recording in Budapest.
The estate asserted that HBO was breaking their end of the deal by housing Leaving Neverland. There is hope that it will eventually return, with the streamer set to lose rights in 2029, which means Reed could then sell the doc somewhere else.
Won’t Michael tackle the accusations?
What about Michael? Surely this documentary would tackle the deviant accusations lobbed at the musician. In the most blunt way possible — it won’t. The biopic has already seen backlash, so much so that one of the actors has come forward to explain this documentary is meant to tell the origin story of the King of Pop rather than focus on the negative rep that he built up during his final few years.
Critics have already bashed it, Jackson’s nephew, Taj, has already bashed media back, and that’s about what we can expect.
