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Actor Jaafar Jackson, who portrayed his late uncle Michael Jackson in the biopic 'Michael', has said he hopes the sequel will provide greater insight into the child sexual abuse allegations against the King of Pop from his point of view, according to People.
Speaking in an interview, Jaafar, 30, said he does not have a say in which aspects of Michael Jackson's later life will be portrayed in the sequel, but expressed hope that the film would allow his uncle's voice to be heard. "I think the second film will give even more insight from his point of view, because at the end of the day, [the allegations] are always from someone else's," Jaafar said, as per the outlet. "It's someone else's story. It's someone else's idea of what it is, and it's mainly driven by an agenda. And that's really the issue we've been having as a family, not having Michael's voice being heard. I think that's very, very important, especially in the late years," he added. Michael Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, faced child sexual abuse allegations beginning in the 1990s. The first 'Michael' film ends its story in 1988, although director Antoine Fuqua had earlier confirmed that the original version included scenes dealing with the allegations, according to People. The biopic, written by John Logan, follows the Jackson family's rise to fame from their early success with Motown Records in the late 1960s through Michael's hugely successful solo career and the release of his album 'Bad' in the late 1980s. Jaafar, the son of Michael's brother Jermaine Jackson, led the film alongside Colman Domingo, who played the Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson, and Nia Long, who portrayed Katherine Jackson, according to People. Reflecting on the first film and his hopes for its sequel, Jaafar said the first movie focused on Michael's early years to establish his personality and character. "This first film focuses on Michael from his roots. You understand who he was as a human being first, because at the end of the day, that's who he was in the '90s until he passed," he said. "He never changed that purity, that sense of always wanting to find the good in other people. And no matter all the stuff he went through, how he was treated, what things were said about him, he never stopped treating people with kindness," he added, according to People. Jaafar further described his uncle as "broken" but said that his compassion remained unchanged. "He was broken," Jaafar said. "His heart still stayed the same... I hope that this is felt in the second movie." The sequel to 'Michael' is already in development. Actor Miles Teller, who played Michael's lawyer-manager John Branca in the first film, confirmed in May that a follow-up was being planned. Lionsgate head Adam Fogelson earlier this month said the studio was targeting a production start for the sequel towards the end of this year or early next year, as per Deadline. The first 'Michael' film, released in April, crossed the USD 1 billion mark at the global box office in July, becoming the highest-grossing biopic of all time. (ANI)
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