Michael | 2026
- Locations |
- Los Angeles, California
- DIRECTOR |
- Antoine Fuqua
Antoine Fuqua's celebration of Michael Jackson seems to wander across the USA but was filmed entirely in California. Find out exactly where.
A celebration of Jackson's rise to global fame than a biopic, the film ends abruptly at the peak of his career in 1988, leaving it feeling like Part One of a two-part movie. It seems much was cut for the final release.
Despite the pre-publicity about filming in the real Neverland Ranch, by ending in the year Michael bought the estate, it ends up not being featured onscreen at all. Since other locations which were teased are not obviously apparent, I’ll stick to the ones I saw.
The film opens in the late Sixties at the Jackson family home in 'Gary, Indiana' where the five musicians are being relentlessly drilled by their driven, ambitious father Joseph Jackson (Colman Domingo).
The snow is fake and the bungalow (not a bad double for the real house at 2300 Jackson Street in Gary) is far from Indiana. The two large palm trees, which you can see in the pic above, had to be removed to disguise the fact that this is actually sunny Los Angeles. It's 5785 Enfield Avenue at Hatteras Street, Encino in the San Fernando Valley. As usual, please remember this is a private home and respect local residents.
The Jackson Five's first big gig at the 'Regal Theatre, Chicago', where the representative from Motown gives Joseph her card, is an old screen favourite. It's still Los Angeles and the beautifully restored Orpheum Theatre, 842 South Broadway, Downtown.
Opened in 1926 as the fourth, and final, house operated by the Orpheum vaudeville circuit, legends including the young Judy Garland (when she was still Francis Gumm) and Jack Benny appeared on its stage.
The Orpheum has an impressive pedigree on screen – it's the ‘New Haven’ venue for the band in in the Oliver Stone's The Doors; and for the film premiere in Michel Hazanavicius' 2011 silent Oscar-winner The Artist; it’s the interior of Hollywood’s 'Pantages Theatre’ for the another premiere, that of Plan 9 From Outer Space in Tim Burton's Ed Wood; and it's where Mary Jane makes her ‘Broadway’ debut in Spider-Man 3. The Orpheum also features in Last Action Hero, Austin Powers In Goldmember, and Kenneth Branagh's 1991 Dead Again.
As the band’s success grows, the (briefly seen) chaotic press conference is held in another regular location, Downtown LA's Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 506 South Grand Avenue, overlooking Pershing Square. Among the hotel's many screen credits it became the ’Sedgewick Hotel’ in Ghostbusters and the ‘Beverly Palms Hotel’ in Beverly Hills Cop.
With this success, the older Michael (Jaafar Jackson) and the family moves into a grand Mock-Tudor Californian estate and the film uses the real thing. For the movie, it's not such a great journey. The Jackson Estate, Hayvenhurst, 4641 Hayvenhurst Avenue, is in Encino, only a couple of miles southeast of the 'Indiana' bungalow
Apart from the five-bedroom mansion, the property includes a candy store, a puppet shop, and an ice cream shop, plus a ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ diorama and a movie theater.
Hayvenhurst was available for filming since it’s remained in the Jackson family and, since 2019, has been occupied by Michael Jackson's daughter.
The sessions for Michael’s first real solo success, the Off The Wall album, were filmed in EastWest Studios, 6000 West Sunset Boulevard in East Hollywood. The studio has a great history with sessions from Frank Sinatra (including My Way), the Beach Boys (the classic Pet Sounds album) and some of Michael Jackson's Thriller.
Famously, a period-style 'Toys'r'Us' store was recreated for the film in a former K-Mart at 1000 North San Fernando Boulevard, Burbank, but legal problems meant this was one of the scenes that hit the cutting room floor. The toy store where Michael now signs autographs for the kids in the film is the real Tom's Toys, 2281 Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, north of Glendale.
Feeling the need to get away from the control of his domineering father, Michael confides in his security guy, Bill (KeiLyn Durrel Jones). Becoming almost a surrogate father figure, Bill drives Michael up to Mulholland Drive, the road winding along the crest of the Hollywood Hills with the view of the city laid out below – as good a place as any to put problems into perspective. And, yes, that's the Griffith Observatory in the background.
The vast arena used for the Triumph tour where Michael performs 'Ben' is the Crypto.com Arena, South Figueroa Street at West 11th Street, near the LA Convention Center in Downtown Los Angeles. It’s probably more familiar by its previous name, the Staples Center but, in 2021, naming rights were bought by Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com.
In the tried and tested biopic convention, an artist looking for ideas is suddenly inspired by immediate surroundings.
In this case, it's old horror movies being shown on TV – a montage including George A Romero's original Night of the Living Dead plus two Vincent Price Fifties shockers, The Fly and House of Wax. We can make an educated guess where this is leading.
The film's publicity claims that, striving for authenticity, the film’s recreation of the Thriller video shoot used the actual original locations which amazingly have not changed. In the final cut we see only the famous zombie street dance, which was filmed on Union Pacific Avenue just west of the junction with South Calzona Street in the Boyle Heights district, across the LA River east of Downtown Los Angeles.
Although they're not seen in the finished film, it would be churlish not to mention the rest of the video's locations.
The exterior of the movie house is the Palace Theatre, 630 South Broadway in Downtown LA, but the interior was the wonderful Rialto, 1023 Fair Oaks Avenue, South Pasadena, seen in Robert Altman's The Player, Scream 2 and La La Land – which is now a place of worship.
The haunted-looking old mansion is the Sanders House, 1345 Carroll Avenue in the historic Angelino Heights district near Echo Park, a street of unchanged 19th century houses. Understandably the street, now subject to a preservation order, is another popular filming location. The Sanders House itself was also featured in Clint Eastwood's J Edgar and 2012's The Guilt Trip as well as TV’s Mad Men and Charmed.
The 'Motown 25' anniversary concert with the Five is also filmed at its real location, which the Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena.
