Taika Waititi pulls out of Michael Jackson film Bubbles

Taika Waititi has walked away from his 'Bubbles' movie about the life of Michael Jackson.

The 43-year-old filmmaker is stepping away from plans to helm the animated film, which tells the King of Pop's story through the eyes of his famous pet chimpanzee called Bubbles, due to his busy schedule which includes the release of his latest film 'Jojo Rabbit'.

Deadline is also reporting that now Taika has pulled out of the project Netflix have also dropped the movie as they feel it's "no longer a fit" without him at the helm.

The streaming service acquired rights to the film - which is from Isaac Adamson's spec screenplay - at Cannes in 2017 for $20 million.

Taika was set to co-direct the film with Mark Gustafson, who has since left to work with Guillermo del Toro on 'Pinocchio'.

The 'Thor: Ragnarok' director previously boasted that the script for the film was "brilliant", however, he mentioned that he was focusing most of his attention on his upcoming comedy 'Jojo Rabbit'.

He said: "That script has been around for a long time, and it's a little bit stuck in the early stages of trying to figure out what it could be and what it would look like.

"It's a f***ing brilliant script, though. It's so cool to look at the idea of telling a story like this through the eyes of a chimpanzee.

"But right now I'm finishing two other features - one which I'm looking to do this year - and finishing 'Jojo [Rabbit], and there are a couple of TV shows I'm developing. There's about two or three that I mentioned to the press, and they're way back on my backburner."

Jackson - who died in June 2009 at the age of 50 from acute Propofol intoxication - has been at the center of child sex allegations since the release of documentary 'Leaving Neverland'.

Dan Reed's film sees Wade Robson and James Safechuck accuse the 'Thriller' singer of sexually abusing them for several years when they toured with Michael and stayed over at his Neverland ranch home.

James claims the abuse started when he was 10 and ended when he was in his mid-teens.

Wade stated that the abuse began when he was seven and ended when he was 14.

The Jackson Estate has refuted the claims of both men.