Sky Arts has announced that Joseph Fiennes is set to play legendary singer Michael Jackson in Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon, a one-off comedy special that details a reported road trip between Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando following the events of 9/11. He will be joined in the cast by Stockard Channing as Taylor and Brian Cox as Brando.
The project is based on events detailed in Vanity Fair back in 2011, where it was claimed that Jackson had invited Taylor and Brando to two of his concerts at Madison Square Garden, with the trio subsequently finding themselves trapped in New York after 9/11 after all air traffic was grounded. They apparently then set out on a road trip across the country, making it as far as Ohio.
“It’s a tongue-in-cheek, fun, light look at three wonderful characters that we know — Michael Jackson, Liz Taylor, and Marlon Brando — and they go on a road trip together,” Fiennes tells EW. “Some say it’s an urban legend, and our story basically says, ‘If it happened, maybe it happened like this.’ They’re stuck in a car for 500 miles as they drive to Pennsylvania, and we get to hear some of the shtick that goes on.”
Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon is slated to air later this year.