If anyone had January 26 down as the day the craziest TV news story of the year would break, then you’ve just won the office pool!
A truly insane report in The Guardian says that Joseph Fiennes is playing Michael Jackson in a TV movie for the British network Sky Arts. While the project is still in the relatively early stages of development, it would be inspired by the urban legend that Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando went on a road trip from New York to California shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks led to all airplanes being grounded.
It would be easy to dismiss this report as a joke, but apparently Fiennes has gone on the record about it with WENN. And according to Fiennes, not only is it really happening, Brian Cox is slated to play Brando and Stockard Channing would be Taylor.
“I got the script the other day,” said Fiennes. “It’s a challenge. It’s a comedy. It doesn’t poke mean fun but it’s a story, possibly urban legend, whereby Michael, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor were all together the day before 9/11 doing a concert. Airspace was shut down and they couldn’t get out and Michael had the bright idea to go to hire a car and drive.”
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“So the three of them got in a car and drove 500 miles to Los Angeles,” continued Fiennes. “It took them a while because they had to stop at a lot of Burger Kings for Marlon; but they got out!” He added that “it’s a lovely thing about Michael’s relationship with Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando. It’s a fun, light-hearted tongue in cheek road trip of what celebrity of that kind is like. But also it’s rather beautiful and poignant about their relationships as well.”
Unreal.
Fiennes is a legitimately talented actor. But casting him as Michael Jackson seems like a huge mistake. Whatever else Jackson went through in his life, he was still a black man by birth. In the modern era, it’s generally frowned upon when a white actor portrays a character of color. Even if Fiennes is fantastic as MJ, there’s no way that this going to go over well.
What do you think about this potential trainwreck of a TV movie? Let us know in the comment section below!
