Michael Jackson Biopic Moonwalking to 22 Days of Additional Photography in June (Exclusive)

Lionsgate and producer Graham King have looked at the man in the mirror and decided he needs some work done.

Michael, the in-flux Michael Jackson biopic, is prepping for a bulky 22-day set of additional photography to be held in June, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

The not-insignificant shoot comes as King, the Jackson Estate and studio partners Lionsgate and Universal are still mulling how to move forward in light of a legal issue, with the movie most likely being split into two parts. The new shoot seems to indicate that headway is being made.

Sources tell THR that while a script for a potential second film still needs to be finalized, the planned June shoot would be for the first film. While the term “reshoots” has been bandied about, in this case it’s less about reshooting what has already been shot but rather expand what was half a film into feature length. Sources say the new film will now end with Jackson leaving the Jackson 5 after the release of his first solo album, Off the Wall. (Yes, Bubbles the chimpanzee will be in the first film.)

Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua, stars the nephew of the late pop superstar, Jaafar Jackson, as the man who wowed the world with songs ranging from “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” to “Smooth Criminal” and “Remember the Time.” Colman Domingo, Nia Long and Miles Teller also appear in the film.

Jackson also faced multiple accusations of child sexual abuse later in his career, with one of the accusations bubbling up to causing a major problem for the producers and studios. As outlined in a Puck report in January, Michael’s previously planned third act needed to be reworked, being that it featured a dramatization of a Jackson accuser, who had a past settlement with the estate guaranteeing he would never be featured in a dramatization. (According to Puck, the estate had overlooked this deal when signing off on the movie, which it is backing.) Michael was initially planned as a single movie spanning the pop stars’ career and life, but, as previously reported by THR, producer King and the estate are working to split the movie into two films, allowing the filmmakers some breathing space to fix this issue.

During Lionsgate’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday, CEO Jon Feltheimer said that the film would likely be moving to 2026, promising a definitive release date and timing in the coming weeks. (Michael already moved back by six months from its previously planned release in April 2025 to October.) Feltheimer also revealed that Fuqua and King have already shot more than three-and-a-half hours’ worth of footage.