The Mirror visits Michael Jackson’s Neverland ahead of the new Hllywood film about Michael Jackson’s life, the Mirror talks to Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed and lawyers for the singer’s alleged victims
ByTom Bryant
It’s easy to miss the anonymous black gate on the winding road just 40 minutes northwest of Santa Barbara.
Discreetly nestled among the hills, The Sycamore Valley Ranch looks like any other sprawling property dotted in this well-heeled area. Until you look up close, that is.
Despite a new name – and with the ornate gold signage long gone – there is no disguising Michael Jackson’s Neverland. Love-struck messages for the King of Pop are daubed in chalk on the walls from his army of fans all across the world. “You are not alone,” says one, while a single love-heart balloon placed there on Valentine’s Day flutters in the wind.
Abandoned in 2005 after his child sex abuse trial which alleged he molested children there, the Disneyland-inspired hideaway went to rack and ruin before being bought by a billionaire friend of the Jackson family for a cut-price £11million. Given the site’s hugely troubling past – which also included being raided by the police – many assumed the property would slide into obscurity.
The famous gates of Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch ( Image: Daily Mirror)
The ranch has been abandoned since allegations surrounding the late musician
Inside Michael Jackson’s abandoned Neverland – from drones to love-notes as home laid bare
But over the course of the last 12 months, Neverland had opened its doors yet again…this time to film Michael, a big-budget Hollywood take on Jackson’s life.
It boasts an impressive cast list with Oscar-nominated Colman Domingo playing Jackson’s abusive father, Joe, while Miles Teller, is John Branca, Jackson’s manager. The singer himself is played by Jackson’s nephew Jaafar. “We filmed at Neverland, it was wild…we dressed it up,” Teller said recently.
For director Dan Reed, who made the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, which featured claims from Wade Robson and James Safechuck that Jackson had abused them as children, the decision to make a film there is beyond the pale.
Fans have left graffiti on the walls
Signs surround the ranch to discourage trespassing
“It’s a return to the scene of the crime in order to whitewash and rewrite history,” Reed tells the Mirror. He says he’s even read the script for the film, whose producers include Branca, who is also a co-executor of Jackson’s estate.
And he says how he was left “astonished” after realising it was a sympathetic retelling of the Jackson story. “The estate has envisioned the biopic as a sort of grand rebuttal to all of their allegations of child sexual abuse,” Reed says. The film is said to feature Jackson being accused of molesting Jordan Chandler, 13, whose family he had befriended.
Jackson denied the allegations but settled out of court for a reported $20 million. “I started off reading the script thinking, ‘wow, the estate is going to address the allegations at last. They’re going to try and level with the world about who Michael Jackson really was.’” Reed says.
A fan left a Happy Valentine’s balloon on the walls of the famous ranch
“But then they start twisting Jordan Chandler’s story to suggest that he was lying and his parents were gold diggers and out to exploit.” Lawyer John C Carpenter, who represents Robson and Safechuck, told the Mirror that while he hadn’t read the script he had “heard that this is a piece of propaganda.”
He added: “It’s not unexpected that the estate is trying to massage the reputation of Michael Jackson in a way that maximises profits for the estate.” Asked what he thought about some of the big-name actors agreeing to be in the film despite all the controversies, Carpenter added: “I find it sad and disappointing that they would do that.”
Reed meanwhile says it represents a huge missed opportunity to settle the wrongs of the past. “I thought this was going to be the estate finally finding its conscience and saying ‘look, we have to deal with the fact that Michael Jackson was a flawed individual with a sexual inclination for children. This should have been done a long time ago,” he says.
Jackson denied any wrongdoing and settled out of court, although this is not an admission of guilt
“Most Hollywood corporations would hold their hands up, say it’s terrible and set up a fund for the victims and move beyond it.” However the decision to depict the Chandler family on screen has reportedly backfired.
Unbeknown to the filmmakers, the estate allegedly signed a contract with the Chandler family that prevents them from depicting him or any of his family in a motion picture. Now major scenes are having to be reshot, although the film is still slated to be released in October. In any case, Reed says “confronting the child sexual abuse allegations head on…..is a really high risk strategy.” Particularly, he says, for the high-profile actors attached to the film.
He adds: “I think it’s a reputational risk for the actors involved but I imagine there’s a big payday associated with being a part of it.” Leaving Neverland saw Robson allege Jackson sexually abused him from the age of seven including at the ranch. Safechuck’s alleged sexual abuse began in Paris in 1988, when he was 10 years old, and continued for four years until 1992. Reed is set to release a follow-up next month, once more on Channel 4, which details the men’s journeys as they take their claims to trial against the estate.
The estate looks very different nowadays
“Even if Wade and James win their case in November next year, Jackson’s fans will still continue believing that Jackson is innocent, Reed says. “In the wake of the first Leaving Neverland we saw a lot of people turn their backs on Michael Jackson but slowly that effect has sort of faded a bit. People found ways to give themselves permission to like his music again and also like him again.”
Jackson was accused again of abuse by child cancer survivor Gavin Arvizo in 2003. He was later acquitted. Shining a light on the Jackson allegations case came at a cost for Reed. The online abuse got so bad he was forced to call in the police at one point.
“You got this torrent of abuse saying ‘how dare you, Michael is an angel…we’re going to kill you. Literally 1000s of emails like that,” he says. “It felt orchestrated…there were thousands of tweets from people with Twitter handles that were just a jumble of numbers and that had been created the day before.
The Mirror visits Michael Jackson’s Neverland
‘I visited Neverland – this shocked me’
“It felt like someone using a bot farm, and was very much a coordinated attack.” Jackson fans were even trying to access his bank details. People started ringing up my utility companies…I kept getting these texts from the electricity company saying someone’s changed the email address in your account. And I was like, ‘what do you mean?’” As he prepares to release the sequel, does he worry about all the abuse ramping up again?
“I have to be alert. You can’t be asleep at the wheel with this sort of stuff. You have to be aware there’s people out there who really hate you because they think that someone who sings nice songs and can dance cannot be a child molester.”
A drone followed Tom – despite being on a public road
In 2016 the singer’s estate earned $825 million, which was said at the time to be the largest figure recorded by a celebrity estate. Last year it made an estimated $600 million via streams including music and merchandise.
“These people don’t want to face the truth because they’re so invested in Jackson,” Reed says. “And certainly the money that he makes for them.” And with Jackson getting the Hollywood treatment, expect that money to only go up…
The Estate didn’t respond to a request for comment.
