‘Michael’ Director Antoine Fuqua On A Convo He Had With Michael Jackson, Reshoots, The Sequel & Choices Made About Pop Icon’s Controversies

Antoine Fuqua notched the best opening of his career at the box office this weekend as his Michael Jackson biopic Michael, from Lionsgate and Universal, debuted to $97 million in the U.S. and $217.4M worldwide. The sweat truly paid off for the director, who cut his teeth doing music videos for Toni Braxton, Stevie Wonder, Prince as well as Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise.”

Quite often, the movies that last for ages — i.e., The Godfather, Chinatown, Titanic — are those that have the most daunting behind-the-scenes moments. Fuqua was thrown a curveball after finishing production on Michael: the movie’s finale originally featured Jackson accuser Jordan Chandler, whose settlement with the singer’s estate guaranteed they would never be dramatized. The estate said mea culpa and took on the extra cost of $50M in reshoots, taking the pic’s net production cost to $200M. Fuqua had to pass on other jobs as additional shooting on Michael lasted 20 days.

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