In an upcoming film made for TV, British actor Joseph Fiennes is set to play the late Michael Jackson. This has come at the heels of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, now being referred to in trending social media as Hollywood's diversity problem.
The film centers around a road trip that Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando allegedly took after 9/11. News of it was initially reported in 2011 in a story in Vanity Fair, where it was claimed that Jackson had invited Taylor and Brando to his concert in Madison Square Garden just before the deadly 9/11 attacks. However, the three ended up being marooned, unable to fly, and so they hired a car to California; which led to the supposed road trip dramatized in the film. The road trip has never been able to be verified in real life.
The film is said to be a one-off for British channel Sky Arts. It casts Fiennes as Jackson, Stockard Channing as Elizabeth Taylor and Brian Cox as Marlon Brando. Its current title is "Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon." Actor Fiennes describes the film as being blithe and amusing.
Not long after the news of the film's production was announced, a social media already seething with the Academy Awards' #OscarsSoWhite controversy condemned the idea of a white actor playing not only a legendary singer but a black one at that. Jackson, who died at the age of 50 in June of 2009, had a skin condition, Vitiligo, that significantly lightened his skin.
People expressed their feelings on twitter in a variety of ways - from indignance that Idris Elba (a black British actor) was passed over to play Bond, to proposals of Denzel Washington playing the role of Elvis.
The film, to be written by Neil Forsyth, will be in the comedy genre and around half an hour long. It will be produced by a new production company of actor Ralf Little's, who acted in "The Royle Family" and "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps."
