"Michael" And The Jackson Biopic That Wasn't (With Danielle Hewitt)
4/30/20261 hr 32 min
Michael is many things: a box-office triumph, a savvy piece of IP management, and a Frankenstein stitched together from a movie we’ll never get to see. Today on the show, we’re joined by two journalists who have reported on Michael Jackson for the Think Twice: Michael Jackson podcast: our own producer Benjamin Frisch, and Danielle Hewitt, to try and make sense of a deeply flawed film that also features some of the best pop music of all time. We get into the drawn-out trajectory of the movie, its legal woes and reshoots, the casting of Michael’s nephew Jaafar in the lead role, and the film’s rose-colored view of its main subject. We also dip into Jackson family history to think about how a more effective Jackson biopic might work, and get into the story of Michael’s career and the legacy of the now-impossible-to-stream Leaving Neverland. Next week, we’re off to fashion week with The Devil Wears Prada 2, with Who Weekly! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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First 90 secondsMarie Barti0:00
[upbeat music] From Blank Check Productions, this is Critical Darlings, a podcast about the movies everyone's talking about, one new release after another. Please welcome your hosts, Richard Lawson and Alison Wilmore.
Richard Lawson· Host0:24
[clapping] Marie Barti, thank you as ever for that spirited introduction. We are joined, as we are every week, by producer Benjamin Frisch. Hello, Ben.
Benjamin Frisch0:34
Good morning, Richard.
Richard Lawson· Host0:35
And we have a second producer here, a very special guest, someone who has worked with Ben before on the acclaimed Michael Jackson podcast, Think Twice, Danielle Hewitt. Hello, Danielle.
Alison Willmore· Host0:44
Good morning. Doing no producing on this. [laughs] [laughs] Just simply here.
Benjamin Frisch0:46
You're free to- Yeah, yes.
Richard Lawson· Host0:48
[laughs] Yeah, yeah. This is not a busman's holiday.
Alison Willmore· Host0:49
Yes.
Benjamin Frisch0:49
Yeah.
Richard Lawson· Host0:49
[laughs] Don't worry. We're not, we're not gonna make you edit anything. [laughs] Um, but yeah, so you two, Ben and Danielle, you worked on this really well-regarded, I mean, to, you know, gas your, your work up- Please ... um, this well-regarded podcast about Jackson. Um, before we get into the movie, I'm just curious if you two wanna tell us a little bit about what it was to produce a show like that. You know, it's not a sensitive subject, obviously. Like, it's an easy thing to talk about. [laughs] So was it just kinda like fun mostly?
Alison Willmore· Host1:12
Yeah, you know.
Benjamin Frisch1:13
[laughs] For me, it mostly was fun.
Richard Lawson· Host1:15
Good.
Benjamin Frisch1:15
I think that Michael Jackson is so fascinating, and, uh, the, I mean, part of the reason I wanted to do this podcast was so that we could talk about this movie. [laughs] [laughs] This is like my Super Bowl.
Alison Willmore· Host1:25
We're here. It's all been leading up to this- Yeah ... this moment.
Benjamin Frisch1:28
Yes.
Alison Willmore· Host1:28
Yeah. The thing that was impressed on me making