Shadow of Neverland

Disgraced star's ranch used in 'sympathetic' film | Doc maker: It rewrites sex abuse claims history

- BY TOM BRYANT

IT is easy to miss the anonymous black gate on the winding road just 40 minutes northwest of Santa Barbara, California.

Discreetly nestled among the hills, The Sycamore Valley Ranch looks like any other sprawling property dotted in this well-heeled area.

Until you look close, that is. Despite a new name, and with the ornate gold signage gone, there is no disguising Michael Jackson's Neverland.

Love-struck messages for the disgraced King of Pop are daubed in chalk on the walls from his army of fans all across the world.

One says: "You are not alone." And a love-heart balloon placed there on Valentine's Day flutters in the wind.

Abandoned in 2005 after Jackson's child sex abuse trial which alleged he molested kids there, the hideaway went to rack and ruin before being bought by a billionaire friend of the star's family for a cut-price £11million.

It was reportedly worth £78m.

And over the course of the past 12 months, Neverland had opened its doors again... to film Michael, a Hollywood take on Jackson's life.

It boasts an impressive cast list with Oscar-nominated Colman Domingo playing Jackson's abusive father, Joe, while Miles Teller is John Branca, the star's manager and co-executor of his estate. The singer is played by Jackson's nephew Jaafar.

Teller said recently: "We filmed at Neverland, it was wild..." But for director Dan Reed, whose 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland featured claims from Wade Robson and James Safechuck that Jackson had abused them as children, making a film there is beyond the pale.