You may have seen trailers for an upcoming movie, Better Man. Perhaps these trailers reminded you of the 1983 sitcom Mr. Smith, about a talking orangutan with a genius level IQ. Perhaps it reminded you of Roddy McDowell as Galen in the1974 Planet of the Apes TV show. It may remind you of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1947 story “Jerry Was a Man.” It’s not like any of these. In fact, it isn’t even science fiction.

Watch the trailer for yourself and see what you think. Warning the trailer is full of foul language. More F-bombs in two and a half minutes than most people hear in two weeks.

Better Man is a semi-biographical film about British singer Robbie Williams. In the movie, Williams is portrayed as a chimpanzee through CGI.

He is not, in real life, a chimp.

Williams says he chose to be shown as a chimpanzee among humans because he always felt “less evolved” than other people.

English actor Jonno Davies portrays Williams’ body through motion capture. Williams provides his own voice.

Davies played Alex DeLarge in the stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. He played Tobias in the Amazon Prime series Hunters. He was Lee Unwin in Kingsman:The Secret Service (2014). Davies played Adrian in the remake of Ben-Hur (2016) .

Better Man was directed by Australian filmmaker Michael Gracey, who directed The Greatest Showman (2017), which starred Hugh Jackman (best known for playing Wolverine in the X-Men franchise) as the legendary P. T. Barnum.. Gracey also produced Rocketman (2019), a biopic of Disney Legend Sir Elton John. So, he’s got plenty experience with biopics of musicians and entertainers.

Better Man premiered at the 51st Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2024, and is scheduled to be released in the United States and Canada between January 10 and JNUARY 17, 2025, and released in Australia Boxing Day, December 26, 2024.

Robbie Williams is a British singer/songwriter. In the early Nineties he belonged to a band called Take That. Williams began a career as a solo artist in 1996. He’s had seven UK No. 1 singles, and 13 of his 14 studio albums have reached No. 1 in the UK. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the UK, with two of them in the top 60. His first studio album was Life Through a Lens, which included his hit single “Angels.” His second album, I’ve Been Expecting You contained “Millenium,” which topped the UK music charts in 1998 and also became popular in the USA and Canada.

If you’re looking for a movie with heroes like Mr. Smith or Galen, this may not be the film for you. If you dislike profanity, this is definitely not the film for you. It’s rated R for a reason. If you’re a fan of Robbie Williams’ music, or if you’re curious how an artist climbs to fame and fortune, then Better Man may be a film you’ll want to see. Watch it if you want to, but it’s allegorical, and fantastical—don’t go into the theater expecting science fiction. It’s it’s own thing.