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Sinner or saint - which Michael Jackson will you believe? The disgraced singer who allegedly orchestrated a cover-up of his years sexually abusing children - according to a four-part Channel 4 documentary that debuts tonight?

Or the pop icon whose singular voice, songwriting genius and dazzling dance moves dominated the global music scene for more than three decades, as seen in the £113million movie Michael coming to UK cinemas in April?

The entertainer, whose hits included Billie Jean, Beat It and Bad, died in 2009 aged 50, striving to revive a career nearly destroyed by paedophilia allegations, after confessing that he shared his bed - innocently, he claimed - with innumerable young children.

But you wouldn't know that by looking at the film trailer, unveiled this week. The movie follows his rise from the Jackson Five to worldwide superstardom, featuring his classic songs, famed moonwalk and legendary Thriller dance routine.

The trailer spearheads a £36m marketing and advertising campaign that aims to restore Jackson's tarnished reputation, notably avoiding all mention of the paedophilia allegations that led him to the brink of suicide.

The film, produced by the singer's estate, hopes to rehabilitate his image for a new generation of fans. But it arrives mired in controversy.

It has been branded "a complete whitewash" by Dan Reed, director of the acclaimed documentary Finding Neverland, which highlighted the abuse allegedly suffered by Jackson's child sex victims. The singer's former publicist, Vincent Amen, says: "I believe there was a cover-up for so many years."

Jackson's British former bodyguard and longtime friend Matt Fiddes says: "You can't just airbrush out this part of his life."

Even Jackson's own daughter, Paris, 27, has distanced herself from the movie, complaining on Instagram that producers ignored her script notes about "what was dishonest/didn't sit right" with her. She warned filmmakers: "Don't be telling people I was 'helpful' on the set of a movie I had 0% involvement in."

The C4 documentary series, Michael Jackson: The Trial, revisits the 14-week California courtroom drama that ended in Jackson's acquittal for child abuse, though it forever stained his reputation. Jackson's voice can be heard in the series confessing his disturbing infatuation with children.

"I have seen children just shower all over me with love," he says in a recorded private conversation with confidant and spiritual advisor Rabbi Shmuley Boteach barely five years before his 2005 molestation trial.

"They wanna touch me and hug me... And I want to be a friend. Sometimes it gets me into trouble... [But] there's nothing purer or more spiritual than children. If you told me right now that, 'Michael, you could never see another child,' I'd kill myself... because I have nothing else to live for."

The documentary features previously unseen footage of Jackson alone with 13-year-old cancer survivor Gavin Arvizo, who in 2003 accused the singer of giving him alcohol and showing him pornography, sparking the singer's arrest and trial.

Publicist Amen claims to have found among Jackson's belongings a naturist magazine containing advertisements for videos of naked children that were marked: "To be ordered."

Even 15 years after his death, Jackson continues to be haunted by child abuse allegations. The singer's longtime publicist Frank Cascio and his four siblings are still pursuing their own sexual abuse lawsuit against Jackson's estate, claiming they were groomed, manipulated and molested in "hundreds of instances" over decades.

Having previously defended Jackson, they went to court last month seeking to void an earlier financial settlement with his estate, which they branded an unlawful attempt to silence child sex abuse victims.

Throughout his life Jackson vehemently denied all allegations of sexual abuse, and his estate claims that the Cascio family is trying to extort it into paying more than $200m.

Jackson's estate also faces ongoing litigation from two alleged child sex victims, Wade Robson, now aged 43, and James Safechuck, 47, who were the subject of the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland. Yet the coming feature film - simply titled Michael - hopes to rebrand and revitalise Jackson's music and highly lucrative legacy.

When he died from an overdose of the anaesthetic Propofol he used to battle insomnia, Jackson was £400m in debt, according to court documents. After his trial many radio stations stopped playing his music, and the sale of his music rights for film, television and commercials dried up. He had squandered his fortune on art, furniture, travel and gifts, and struggled to pay the £24m annual interest on his debt.

Desperate for cash, Jackson had planned a 50-date residency at London's O2 arena and was weeks from its opening when he died.

Yet steered by Jackson's manager John Branca, who is one of the producers of the new movie, the singer's estate was slowly turned to profitability. His music returned to popular culture, and fans have ignored the paedophilia accusations to make global hits of stage shows featuring his songs: Thriller - Live, and MJ the Musical.

His music catalogue was valued at £940m'by 2024, and Jackson has some 60 million monthly Spotify listeners. The movie will only send those figures soaring.

Starring the gloved-one's nephew Jaafar Jackson, aged 29, the son of Michael's brother Jermaine, the film promises to be a sanitised hagiography of the singer from Gary, Indiana, who rose to become a Motown Records star, created the bestselling album in history with 1982's Thriller, had 13 US chart-topping hits, and Top Ten singles in each of six decades.

The trailer presents an adoring array of Jackson concert performances, while onscreen titles urge: "Experience his genius. . . . Discover his legacy."

Colman Domingo, portraying patriarch Joe Jackson in the film, spells out his game plan, which the movie evidently lives by. "We need to capitalise on Michael's success," he says. "Because the Jackson family is the brand. That's our 'Coca-Cola'. And we need to start selling it."

There is no question that the movie is selling Jackson's glory days, with loving looks at his red-leather Thriller jacket and his silver sequinned glove. "You're the greatest of all time," he assures himself.

Yet the film's journey to the screen has been marred with controversy, multiple delays and reshoots. Michael was supposed to open in April 2025, including a third act that dismissed as extortion the earliest child sex abuse allegations by 13-year-old Jordan Chandler in 1993.

Jackson was to be portrayed "as the naive victim of the money-grubbing Chandlers," reveals Hollywood writer Matt Belloni, who read the original script, which included a scene with Jordan's father threatening to destroy the singer's career.

That scene is gone, along with the final third of the film which had to be largely scrapped, necessitating 22 days of costly reshoots, when producers belatedly learned a $20m settlement with Chandler's family prohibited them from dramatising or depicting his story in any medium.

The film's release was pushed back six months, and then another six, leading to its coming belated release on April 24.

Don't expect to see it touch upon Jackson's ill-fated union with Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie, either. She realised their marriage was over when the singer said he wanted his cosmetologist's nursing assistant Debbie Rowe to have his baby.

Three months after parting from Lisa Marie in 1996, Jackson married Rowe, who delivered son Prince, 28, and Paris. They divorced in 2000, and Jackson's son 'Blanket' - now 'Bigi', 23 - was born by surrogate.

Discussions are under way for a sequel, presenting the later years of his life. But that doubtless depends on whether the film is a box office smash and can generate enough revenue to warrant a look at the more troubled, painkiller-addicted, scandal-plagued years of Jackson's life.

Paris Jackson went on to critique "sugar-coated" movie biopics, which she believes feature "a lot of inaccuracy and there's a lot of just full-blown lies."

But her father's die-hard fans, who prefer to maintain the illusion of Jackson's mythology, may approve of the movie. Says Paris: "A big section of the film panders to a very specific sector of my dad's fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they're gonna be happy with it." Until then, the documentary will not let fans forget the fallen King of Pop's darker side.

• Michael Jackson: The Trial debuts tonight on Channel 4, 9pm.