Why British pop star Robbie Williams is played by a CGI monkey in the bizarre but critically acclaimed biopic 'Better Man'

• An upcoming biopic sees British pop star Robbie Williams portrayed by a CGI monkey.
• Director Michael Gracey said the twist made sense given how the British star sees himself.
• The move seems to have paid off, as "Better Man" has been praised by critics.

Robbie Williams is the latest star to get the biopic treatment, following in the footsteps of other British music icons such as Elton John and Amy Winehouse.

However, his comes with a rather bizarre but seemingly inspired twist.

In the upcoming film, which is titled "Better Man," Williams is portrayed as a CGI monkey, to which he lends his distinctive voice.

Audiences have now had a first glimpse at just how that will look after Paramount Pictures released a teaser trailer for the film earlier this week.

"I'm Robbie Williams. I'm one of the biggest pop stars in the world. But I've always seen myself a little less … evolved," the former Take That band member says in the trailer.

The decision to have Williams's life story play out on screen by a singing, dancing chimp, it turns out, was an easy one for director Michael Gracey, but it made the film a rather hard sell for studios.

Feeling like a performing monkey

In an accompanying featurette released the same day as the trailer, Williams and Gracey, best known for the box office hit musical "The Greatest Showman," sat down to discuss why they decided to give the biopic a simian twist.

As Gracey recalled, he asked Williams: "If you were an animal, how would you see yourself?"

"In your own words, you would refer to being dragged up onstage to perform like a monkey," Gracey said.

"It immediately clicked. With your voice and that monkey, I am going to see you and relate to you in a way that is going to be more engaging than yet another musical biopic," he continued.

However, speaking to The New York Times, Gracey noted that the decision to portray Williams as a monkey "was also the thing that made the film near impossible to finance."

The film's budget doubled

"Better Man" was first announced in early 2021.

However, The New York Times reported that the film has been in the works for over half a decade, seemingly because of the difficulties securing financing.

After explaining the concept of the film to potential backers, Gracey said many would respond: "'Oh, yes, in some dream sequence, or he looks at his reflection, and he sees himself as a monkey.'"

"I said, 'No, no, no, the entire film.' Their faces would just drop and they would say, 'OK, well, this is the end of the meeting,'" he added.

But leaning on his success in "The Greatest Showman," Gracey eventually managed to get enough money together to pull the film off.

Gracey looked to Weta FX, the famed visual effects company behind CGI work seen in "Avatar: The Way of Water" and the rebooted "Planet of the Apes" franchise, to help bring his vision to life.

In "Better Man," actor Jonno Davies wore a motion capture suit so his movements and expressions could be recorded. Williams, meanwhile, contributed his voice — and thanks to CGI technology, it's his real eyes that audiences see shining out of the excitable primate's face.

Gracey said the whole process ended up doubling the movie's budget.

While the exact figure hasn't been revealed, Metro previously reported that industry sources had put it at around $100 million.

Still, Gracey was willing to take a bet on the film — even if audiences in the US are not as familiar with Williams and his work. The singer had limited success in America at the height of his career in the nineties and early 2000s but is one of the best-selling artists of all time and a household name in the UK and Europe.

Over a career that has spanned more than 30 years, the singer has reportedly built a net worth of almost $300 million.

Critics have praised the film for its originality

The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in late August and received a standing ovation, The Times reported. Since then, there has been an outpour of positive reviews from critics, who also got a chance to see the movie at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Maureen Lee Lenker described the film as "beautifully emotional and engaging," adding that it is "refreshingly honest for a musical biopic that has the involvement of its subject."

IndieWire's David Ehrlich praised the film's innovative framing, writing: "It's hard to overstate how dramatically Williams' hooligan persona — and the movie's fantastical illustration thereof — transform otherwise rote material into something fresh."

"Against all odds, that gimmick works, distinguishing the project from so many other cookie-cutter pop-star hagiographies," Variety's Peter Debruge added.

"Better Man" will be released in selected theaters in the US on December 25, with a wider release set for January 17.