Following his 2025 Pierre Angénieux Tribute at the Cannes Film Festival, Academy Award-winning director of photography Dion Beebe ACS, ASC returns to the world of music-driven cinema with Michael, the new biographical film directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson.
Released in theaters in April 2026, Michael traces Jackson’s rise from his early years with the Jackson 5 to his evolution into one of the most recognizable performers in modern music history. The film brings together performance, biography, memory, and spectacle. A territory well suited to a cinematographer known for moving fluidly between stylized musical worlds, intimate drama, and bold technical experimentation.
A Cinematographer at Home in Musical Worlds
Dion Beebe’s filmography has long demonstrated his ability to adapt his visual approach to radically different genres. From the saturated theatricality of Chicago and the elegance of Memoirs of a Geisha to the nocturnal digital experimentation of Collateral, the large-scale science fiction of Edge of Tomorrow, and the underwater fantasy of The Little Mermaid, Beebe’s work is marked by versatility, precision, and a deep sensitivity to mood. That adaptability has often been described as one of the defining qualities of his cinematography. In a 2025 profile published shortly after his Pierre Angénieux Tribute, Acumen noted the “eclectic” nature of Beebe’s work, highlighting how he has moved between projects as visually different as Miami Vice, Green Lantern, The Little Mermaid, and Collateral. (Acumen Magazine) In this film, that range becomes especially relevant. A movie about Michael Jackson cannot be approached only as a biopic; it must also contend with performance, iconography, stagecraft, rhythm, movement, and the contrast between public image and private life. Speaking to FilmInk, Beebe described the project as both extraordinary and challenging, noting the privilege of working with Jackson’s music and the responsibility of exploring the person behind the performances. “To be working with Michael’s music, you have to pinch yourself,” he said.Performance, Intimacy, and Scale
For Beebe, the film also marked his first feature collaboration with director Antoine Fuqua, whose background includes both narrative cinema and music videos. That combination makes the project particularly interesting from a cinematography perspective: the film needed to capture not only the visual electricity of Jackson on stage, but also quieter moments away from the spectacle. As Beebe explained in the same interview, the challenge was to “lift the veil” on Michael as a person while still embracing the film’s music-heavy nature. He also praised Jaafar Jackson’s physical connection to the role, describing him as someone who had grown up watching and embodying Michael’s movement. That duality, the global performer and the private individual, is central to the film’s visual challenge. The cinematography must move between large-scale performance sequences and more intimate dramatic scenes, between the instantly recognizable image of an icon and the emotional uncertainty of the person behind it.Shot with Angénieux Optimo Ultra 12x and EZ Zooms
For selected sequences in Michael, Dion Beebe used Angénieux zooms, including the Optimo Ultra 12x in its Full Frame version (36–435mm), as well as the EZ-1 and EZ-2. The Optimo Ultra 12x Full Frame offers an extensive 36–435mm focal range, allowing cinematographers to move from wider contextual views to tighter, more intimate framings with a single zoom. On a film like Michael, where performance, movement, and dramatic portraiture intersect, that kind of flexibility can be especially valuable. Performance-driven sequences often call for responsiveness and continuity, while dramatic scenes depend on precision, restraint, and emotional focus. The EZ-1 and EZ-2 zooms further expand this flexibility, offering compact, adaptable options for productions that require speed, mobility, and consistency across diverse shooting environments. Their versatility makes them especially useful on projects that move between controlled dramatic scenes, performance work, and more agile setups, allowing the camera team to respond efficiently to each sequence’s demands.Continuing a Creative Relationship with Angénieux
Beebe’s use of Angénieux optics on Michael continues the relationship between the cinematographer and Angénieux lenses. His previous work with Angénieux includes films such as Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, Mary Poppins Returns, and The Little Mermaid, each demonstrating his ability to use optical tools in service of very different cinematic worlds. At the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Beebe was the laureate of the Pierre Angénieux Tribute, an honor recognizing cinematographers whose images have left a lasting mark on cinema. In celebrating him, Angénieux recognized not only a singular body of work but also a career defined by curiosity, collaboration, and visual reinvention. Here, Beebe once again enters a world where music, light, movement, and emotion are inseparable. His use of Angénieux zooms reflects the demands of a film built around both spectacle and sensitivity, a story that required the camera to follow an icon, but also to search for the person behind the image.Sources and further reading
This article draws on publicly available interviews and production information, as well as lens information confirmed directly by Dion Beebe.
FilmInk “Dion Beebe’s Cinematographer’s Protocol”.
Acumen “Dion Beebe: the light at the heart of cinema”.
Sony Cine Michael production listing.
