In 2012 I met John Branca, Michael Jackson’s lawyer of 40-odd years and the brains behind Jackson’s estate, which is worth an estimated $2.4 billion. Branca, who is worth about $100 million himself, began working for Jackson in 1980 and five years later helped him seal his famous purchase of the rights to the Beatles’ songs. When we met he had just collaborated with the director Spike Lee on a documentary about Jackson’s Bad album. Proclaiming Jackson as a better dancer than Fred Astaire, Branca combined suavity, bravado and steel in the way that only high-powered Americans can.
Now 74, Branca is a prime mover behind a forthcoming film about Jackson’s life that he has said would become “the largest-grossing, most acclaimed biopic in the history of Hollywood”. There’s a snag, though.
