Almost every music biopic follows the same formula: it shows the rise and fall of a particular musician or band and describes how the hits are made. It’s a little late to shake up that formula.

Director Michael Gracey (“The Greatest Showman”) and British pop star Robbie Williams think they may have a strange formula to solve that with the upcoming film “Better Man.”

Williams, 50, will not be portrayed in human form. Instead, a CGI monkey will play the role of Williams, for which actor Jonno Davies, 32, provided all the motion capture. Davies voices the character and Williams sings.

Yes, it’s a bit of a stretch, but Williams and Gracey addressed the reasoning behind the decision in an interview with Vanity fair.

“To see himself as a performing monkey was not just when he was famous, but throughout his life. He always performed in (his hometown),” Gracey said.

The biopic’s logline says the film will “showcase the meteoric rise, dramatic fall and remarkable revival of British pop superstar Robbie Williams, one of the greatest entertainers of all time.”

Williams was previously part of the British boy band Take That. The group is the most successful boy band in UK chart history, with twelve number 1 singles and more than 14 million albums sold.

Williams left the group in 1995 and went solo. He would have seven number 1 songs in Britain. Of his thirteen number 1 solo albums, six are among the top 100 best-selling albums in Britain. The pop star has also dealt with mental health and alcohol issues over the years. . Williams opens up about his life in an autobiographical miniseries on Netflix.

“Better Man” premieres December 25 in select Paramount theaters. Watch the teaser below.

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Murjani Rawls can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at@MurjaniRawls.