PASADENA — The subject of Lifetime’s latest biopic is none other than the King of Pop.
The TV movie, tentatively titled “Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland,” is currently in pre-production, the cable network announced Friday at the Television Critics Association press tour. Based on the book “Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days,” the film will be told from the perspective of the late singer’s bodyguards, Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard.
Navi, known as the top Michael Jackson tribute artist, will star in the title role in his first-ever acting gig, while Chad L. Coleman (“The Walking Dead”) has been cast as Whitfield, his bodyguard. Filming starts in Los Angeles in February.
The news comes the same day the British TV network Sky of the comedy series “Urban Myths” in which Joseph Fiennes plays Michael Jackson. The singer’s daughter, Paris Jackson, criticized the episode, in which Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando are shown taking a road trip across the US after 9/11, calling the portrayal “shameful.”
There is no air date yet for “Searching for Neverland.”