Johnny Depp to produce musical on Michael Jackson narrated by his 'alien' glove that 'feeds on virgin boy blood'
As if there was a dearth of scrutiny regarding the King of Pop's personal and professional life, actor Johnny Depp has decided to produce a satirical musical on Michael Jackson which will be told from the perspective of his iconic glove.
The story of the legend's life will be narrative by a talking and singing glove in the musical by Julien Nitzberg titled 'For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About the Life of Michael Jackson, as told by his Glove'.
The musical debuts in Los Angeles on January 25 and is described as a “look into the strange forces that shaped Michael and the scandals that bedeviled his reputation."
Nitzberg apparently came up with the concept of the musical 17 years ago. “I’m known for writing a lot of biopics,” he told Page Six. “A major TV network wanted me to write a [Jackson] movie… but the question came up [about] how to deal with the child-abuse allegations.”
However, when it came to the content of the musical, Nitzberg and the network weren't on the same page, especially with regard to the child abuse allegations that plague MJ's image even after his death. And the biopic writer's absurd take on the already controversial matter was too much for the network heads to handle.
“I said, how’s this? Everything MJ has been accused of has actually been caused by his glove, which is actually an alien from outer space [and] feeds on virgin boy blood. They laughed and said, can you do the normal version?” Nitzberg said.
To change his vision to fit the narrative that the network wanted was "morally repugnant", Nitzberg said. "I turned down a really big paycheck.”
Later, when Nitzberg thought “I’m going to go back to this and do this as a musical" he was unable to "get the financing."
He got a chance to work with Depp’s company Infinitum Nihil while working on developing a biopic on the 1960s 'Tiny Tim' to star John Turturro. “It ended up never getting made, but I developed a very good relationship with them,” Nitzberg recalled.
But the company still wanted to work with Nitzberg so it asked him what project he was working on next. “I’m doing this theater piece you probably aren’t interested in," the writer said at the time, as he told them about the satire piece he wanted to make in the wake of HBO’s 'Leaving Neverland' documentary.
As it turned out, they were interested and he got the financial backing he needed to make his musical a reality.