By Mollie Quirk
A film company making a movie about the King of Pop has rebuilt Michael Jackson's Neverland theme park, with the ranch, situated near Santa Barbara, looking full of life once again, after its grim past.
The 2,700-acre ranch near Santa Barbara, which is where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reside, is famously named after the home of Michael Jackson's fictional hero Peter Pan. And following Jackson's death, when the theme park crumbled and withered, it has now been given a new lease of life.
From 1988 to 2005, the ranch was the home and private amusement park of Jackson. In 2003, a search warrant was executed at Neverland Ranch in connection with the People v. Jackson trial after Jackson was charged with multiple counts of molesting a minor.
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Although acquitted of all charges, Jackson then went on to state how he would never live at the property again as he no longer considered the ranch a home. When the King of Pop died in 2009 at the age of 50, there were reports his family wanted to turn the site into a place of pilgrimage for fans.
But in December 2020, billionaire businessman Ron Burkle bought Neverland for only $22million (£17,754,770), nearly four times less than it was initially listed for. At the time, a spokesperson for Burke said the businessman saw the investment as a land banking opportunity, but now it seems to have been restored to its former glory, with old rides updated and looking full of life and fun.
New photos show the ranch looking colourful and packed full of fun rides, including a large Ferris wheel, circus tent, and merry-go-round. The film company who have restored the theme park have done so due to them making a movie about the singer's life.
Aerial photos show that colourful fairground rides, tents and a red train have returned to the grounds of the Californian ranch, with it now looking almost identical to the King of Pop's original home.
As well as traditional rides, there is also a hot air balloon ride, and the classic red train that famously carried visitors around the park when Jackson was alive and living at the ranch.
In the snaps, cameras can be seen rolling around the ranch and film crew trucks could be seen in a nearby car park, with the theme park bustling with actors. Some extras played balloon sellers while others operated rides and tended to food stalls.
In the new film, Jackson's nephew, Jaafar, plays the late singer in the biopic which is entitled Michael. Due to be released next April, the biopic is set to be directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by John Logan.
The movie will be a true story based on the life of the American singer and dancer Michael Jackson. "Principal photography" was scheduled to begin in mid-2023, with it thought to last for 80 days.
The project spend was $120million (£97m) on crew wages and vendors, according to the California Film Commission. Filming was then delayed in September 2023 due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Filming then started up in January 2024, with Dion Beebe serving as the cinematographer.
The King of Pop's Neverland might have looked like a wonderland when he was alive, filled with animals and fun rides. But the pop star was actually infatuated with animals, famously singing a song about his pet rat Ben as a child, and would take a 6ft boa constrictor called Muscles into the music studio with his fascination with nature spiraling out of control as the pop sensation started buying exotic creatures to house in his Neverland ranch in California.
Jackson had over 50 different species in his collection of at least 130 animals, including six giraffes, eight alligators, a bear, 20 exotic birds, three elephants, seven apes, four tigers, monkeys, snakes and lizards.
He spent millions of dollars acquiring them, but has been described as a "consumer of animals" who "treated them like toys that were easily replacable and often disposable".
According to a documentary headed up by Ross Kemp one of Jackson's parrots was eaten by a boa constrictor who found a gap in the bird cage, while a llama named Snow White died after being viciously attacked by dogs.
Ross said in the show, which aired in 2022: "For a man who spent much of his career accusing anyone who criticised him as ignorant, perhaps Jackson was at best ignorant of his animals best interests or at worse knew how to care for them properly, but in the end chose not to."
And not only was there issues with the animals Jackson kept, but there was alleged "abuse rooms" at the ranch too. Following child molestation claims, James Safechuck from Leaving Neverland alleged that Michael introduced him to masturbation, he said things quickly escalated and that they had sex all over the Neverland Ranch - including inside the castle, pool, attic and train station .
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