The Michael Jackson story is getting a second big-screen chapter, and California is backing it with serious money. A sequel to Michael, currently titled Michael 2, has been approved for $30.8 million in California tax incentives, making it one of the highest-profile projects in the latest round of awards from the California Film Commission.
The Lionsgate follow-up is among 35 productions receiving a combined $226 million in incentives as the state continues its push to keep major film and television production from migrating elsewhere.
The first Michael received approximately $21 million in California tax credits. The sequel qualifies for a considerably richer incentive, with credits worth up to 35 percent of qualifying production expenditures, compared with roughly 17.5 percent for the first film.
That difference reflects the expansion of California’s production incentive program as the state competes with other U.S. jurisdictions and international production hubs offering aggressive tax breaks.
Michael stars Jaafar Jackson, the singer’s nephew, as the King of Pop, with Antoine Fuqua directing. The cast also includes Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson and Nia Long as Katherine Jackson.
The film traces Jackson’s rise from the Jackson 5 through his transformation into one of the most commercially successful performers in music history.
A sequel had long seemed likely given the scale of the story and the amount of material surrounding Jackson’s later career. Now, with a major California incentive secured, the second film has a much clearer path to production.
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The project is not the only familiar franchise heading back to California. A long-awaited sequel to Friday, starring and produced by Ice Cube, is also among the projects approved in the latest round. The untitled film, often referred to as Last Friday, is expected to shoot in Southern California.
“I’m thrilled to produce Untitled Last Friday Sequel right here in Southern California, where our cast and crew lives,” Cube said. “This story has been part of the fabric of South Los Angeles since our first film 31 years ago.”
The original Friday, released in 1995, starred Cube alongside Chris Tucker and became a cult favorite, spawning Next Friday and Friday After Next.
Disney and Pixar are also receiving major support.
An untitled Pixar film landed the single largest award in the new round at $40.1 million, while Disney is expected to receive roughly $30 million for two additional unnamed productions.
The California Film Commission says the 35 approved projects are expected to generate approximately $1.08 billion in direct production spending, support more than 5,400 cast and crew jobs, and create nearly 25,000 days of work for background performers.
For California, that is the larger story.
The state has spent years watching productions chase richer incentives in places including Georgia, New York, the UK and Canada. These latest awards show how aggressively California is trying to reverse that trend.
And if Michael Jackson, Ice Cube and Pixar can help bring billions in spending back home, Sacramento appears more than willing to pay for the encore.
