Better Man, the crazy Robbie Williams monkey biopic, has its trailer

Michael Gracey, the director of The Greatest Showman, creates a star portrait like no other.

When we learned at the end of 2021 that Robbie Williams was going to get his biopicthe paper of Variety in no way predicted the crazy video which has just been revealed by Paramount. It was simply indicated that the interpreter of ““Angels” (1997) was going to play himself in a film retracing his life and career, and that it would be written and directed by Michael Gracey, to whom we owe another biopic: The Greatest Showmanin 2017, in which Hugh Jackman played artist Phineas Taylor Barnum.

Three years later, Better Man is filmed, and its first images are surprising to say the least, the ex-member of Take That having decided to appear as a monkey. A digitally animated primate, who effectively relives his greatest concerts of the 1990s-2000s, but also his falls. And which therefore has the voice of Robbie, who obviously has a lot of fun with this original concept.

“I know what you're saying to yourself, he begins while his little monkey is manhandled by classmates. Why a monkey? I'm Robbie Williams. I'm one of the most famous pop stars in the world, but I've always seen myself as a little less…evolved than that.”

The video is already accompanied by a short making-of explaining where this idea of ​​incarnation by a digital monkey came from. The director says he asked the star: “If you were an animal, what would you see yourself as?” He then replied that he had been “brought on stage to perform like a monkey”and understanding that he perceived himself thus, “it clicked”continues the director. The fact of having this primate and your voice, I knew that I would be able to tell your life, your journey, in a more interesting way for the spectator, that he would feel more involved than with any other comedy musical.”

The young British actor Jonno Davis was therefore hired to “play” Robbie, slipping into a performance capture suit only to be transformed digitally, and Williams recounted his journey in voiceover. Jake Simmance and Jesse Hyde Mark Owen play other members of Take That, and Damon Herriman, Kate Mulvany, Alison Steadman and Raechelle Banno are also announced in the cast, the latter having been chosen to play Nicole Appleton of the group All Saints, which was a hit at the time of the crazy success of“Angels”. She had a complicated romantic relationship with Robbie Williams, which will be recounted here.

The video above does not specify it, but if Michael Gracey was interested in the singer of “Me and my Monkey” (2002), it is largely thanks to Hugh Jackman, who was inspired by his stage performances to interpret Barnum in The Greatest Showman. Robbie Williams ultimately did not directly participate in this project, but the two men remained in contact, and the director was so marked by the pop star's story that they ended up working on this funny biopic. concept.

Since the start of construction of Better ManRobbie Williams also had the right to his portrait on Netflix, in a more classic but interesting documentary, where he speaks without language about his career. This has been available since the end of 2023.

Better Man should be released on December 25 in the United States, but it does not yet have a French release date. Note that in another genre, another singer will soon have his original biopic: the interpreter of “Happy” participated in a self-portrait in Legowhich will also be released in cinemas at the end of the year.

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