Joseph Fiennes Playing Michael Jackson in Movie About King of Pop's 9/11 Road Trip

Shakespeare in Love actor and Ralph Fiennes' little brother, Joseph Fiennes, has just handed the oddest role: he'll be playing King of Pop Michael Jackson in a 9/11 road trip TV movie. Joining him will be Grease actress Stockard Channing in the role of Elizabeth Taylor and Troy star Brian Cox in the role of Marlon Brando in the oddest casting choice (that is already stirring racism controversy) ever.

According to The Guardian, the project, a British TV movie, will be a one-off special for Sky Arts, telling an unlikely and seemingly unconfirmed story: that right after the World Trade Center twin towers came down in New York City, the three megastars embarked on a road trip from NYC to their L.A. homes, as all air traffic had been halted over terrorism concerns.

Neil Forsyth, the author of Delete This at Your Peril, will write the screenplay for the TV drama.

The film is based on a 2011 article published on Vanity Fair, shortly after Taylor's death The story recounts that the two Oscar winners and the music superstar were so desperate to get back home that they rented a car and pretended to drive it it themselves all the way to their West Coast homes, and a former Jackson employee is quoted as saying they got "as far as Ohio."

"I got the script the other day," Fiennes told WENN. "It's a challenge. It's a comedy. It doesn't poke mean fun but it's a story, possibly urban legend, whereby Michael, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor were all together the day before 9/11 doing a concert. Airspace was shut down and they couldn't get out and Michael had the bright idea to go to hire a car and drive."

They also reportedly stopped at a lot in fast food restaurants on the road so Brando could eat junk food.

While the veracity of the story has been questioned, one thing is clear: people aren't happy that Fiennes, a white man, will be the one playing Jackson. The Daily Beast calls Fiennes' casting "a symptom of Hollywood's deep-seated race problem," just as the debate for diversity rages on in Tinsel Town over the current call for boycott for this year's very white Oscar acting nominations.