I can guarantee you’ve never seen a biopic quite like Better Man.
The upcoming film details English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams’s rise to fame, from his days in boyband Take That, to his solo career, and all the highs and lows in between. But crucially, Better Man‘s version of Williams isn’t human. Instead, he’s a CGI chimpanzee in a world full of humans.
You heard me correctly: Better Man turns Robbie Williams into a singing, dancing chimp (played by Jonno Davies, with narration from Williams himself), making for a cross between Rocketman and Planet of the Apes. The decision isn’t just for shock value, though. As director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) explains in a featurette, he drew inspiration from Williams’s descriptions of “being dragged up on stage to perform like a monkey.”
“Portraying you not as we see you, but as how you see yourself, it immediately clicked in a way that I was like, ‘with your voice and that monkey, I’m gonna see you and relate to you in a way that is going to be more engaging than yet another musical biopic,'” Gracey told Williams.
In Mashable’s review from the film’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere, Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko praised the device, writing, “At first, it might seem a cheeky gimmick (or cheeky monkey) meant to hook audiences with the sheer oddness of the choice. But Gracey nurtures this concept, weaving together a collaborative performance with actors and the legendary VFX studio Wētā FX to create a uniquely moving portrait of an artist at war with himself….This results in the best music biopic since the rousing splendor of Elton John’s Rocketman (which Gracey notably executive produced).”
Better Man hits select theaters Dec. 25, and opens nationwide Jan. 17.
