Michael Jackson movie biopic Part 2 latest shared by Lionsgate studio boss | Films | Entertainment

The controversial official new Michael Jackson biopic has proved a huge hit, making $716 million on a budget of $155 million. Having concluded the story in 1987 with the Bad tour and a tagline promising that his story continues, it’s hardly surprising that Lionsgate are already working on a sequel, having previously teased a release date.

During an investors and analysts quarterly earnings call this week, Lionsgate film chief Adam Fogelson teased: “We are really excited about the progress we’re making with respect to a second Michael film. All the conversations that we’ve been having with all of the appropriate parties continue to go exceptionally well.”

Since Michael concluded in 1988, the first film didn’t touch on the multiple child sexual abuse allegations the King of Pop faced in life and continues to face increasingly after his death. Alongside the 1993 settlement and 2005 trial, there’s also Jackson’s Dangerous, HIStory and Invincible albums to cover.

Fogelson shared: “I would say that there is a ton of incredibly entertaining Michael Jackson stories, and much of the biggest and most popular parts of his music catalogue that were not touched upon in the first film. There are so many other events that happened, even in the time frame of the original movie that weren’t touched upon, so we’re very, very confident that we’ve got an incredibly entertaining movie that will appeal once again to a global audience as the pieces come together.”

Fogelson added: “We can go forwards and backwards in telling this story… We think we’ve got 25 to 30% of a second movie already shot from the prior production activity, and so obviously that will have some [financial] benefit ultimately, but we’re going to make sure we make a big and satisfying movie for a global audience once again.” The question is, though, will it be titled Michael Part 2 or Jackson?