Major props to the genius who convinced Paramount that it was a good idea to greenlight “Better Man” for the whopping sum of $110M.
Yes, according to Deadline, that was the production budget of the Robbie Williams biopic, released on Christmas Day, that’s so far only grossed $100,000. To be fair, it’s set to expand more widely in the coming weeks, but there’s practically no chance it makes even a fraction of its budget back.
I guess that’s what you get when you decide to make an entire film with a CGI character. In case you’re unaware, they decided to have a monkey play Williams in this one.
“Better Man” strives to be different from all the other musical biopics. Williams is portrayed as a CGI monkey. Everyone else is human. The film is an tad overlong, clocking in at 134 minutes, and still manages to have conventional beats to its narrative (the highs, the lows). However, for the most part, it’s actually a decently entertaining movie.
Michael Gracey directs with all of the flashy showboating he delivered in “The Greatest Showman.” Gracey hired Weta FX who used motion-capture suit to bring Williams as a monkey to life. That’s the film’s strongpoint, its visual ingenuity, and some of the Fosse-driven musical numbers are quite inspired. Jonno Davies, who plays Williams, does an admirable job.
“Better Man” will be hitting 2000+ screens on January 17. Paramount is hoping this one will be a hit, but reviews have sadly not all been glowing, and despite last year’s Telluride and TIFF premieres, there’s practically no Oscar buzz left for the film.