Leaving Neverland streaming – Michael Jackson film taken down but is coming back | Films | Entertainment

Back in 2019, a decade after Michael Jackson’s sudden death at 50, HBO launched the controversial two-part documentary Leaving Neverland.

The film follows the testimonies of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, two men who allege that the King of Pop (who faced multiple independent accusations of child sexual abuse in his lifetime that he always denied) sexually abused them many times from the ages of 7 and 10.

Airing on Channel 4 in the UK at the time, the movie won an Emmy but received a polarising response, including an ironic resurgence in Jackson’s music sales.

Now as Michael (the official part 1 biopic that concludes in 1988 before the first allegations in 1993) hits cinemas, Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed has spoken out on why you cannot watch his film today and when it will be available again.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Reed was asked about HBO taking down Leaving Neverland from its streaming platform. It turns out that in February 2019, Jackson’s estate successfully sued HBO for breaking a non-disparagement clause in a contract for a 1992 Budapest concert recording.

Reed shared: “The estate argued that the non-disparagement clause, which says, ‘You can’t say anything nasty about Michael,’ applied forever to everything that HBO would ever do — which is patently ridiculous. Somehow the estate managed to persuade HBO to come to an amicable settlement. And that involved, after six years on the platform, taking Leaving Neverland down.”

As for when Leaving Neverland can be watched again, Reed continued: “HBO has a license only until 2029. So after that, I can resell it and make it available again. The sequel went out on YouTube in the US, which is pretty unsatisfying.”

Leaving Neverland 2: Surviving Michael Jackson, which is still on the Channel 4 app, was released last year and follows Robson and Safechuck bringing their allegations to trial. The trial against Jackson’s companies is scheduled to take place later this year, possibly in November.

Reed added: “I keep in touch with them. I’m hoping to make another film about the trial that’s coming up.” Looks like Leaving Neverland 3 is on the way and presumably will include not just Robson and Safechuck’s trial, but the filmed reactions to the box office success of Michael, which is set to have at least one sequel. Reed has previously said: “I hope [it] will be a very dramatic ending [to my film trilogy].”