Weirdest celebrity biopics as Robbie Williams transformed into CGI monkey

The One Show: Robbie Williams chats about upcoming film

Robbie Williams is transformed into a CGI monkey for the upcoming semi-autobiographical biopic of his life, Better Man.

Charting his success from the early days of Take That to launching his incredible solo career, the “honest” film begins with Robbie admitting: “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.”

It turns out director Michael Gracey decided on the monkey angle for a specific purpose, asking Robbie: “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.

“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,” The Greatest Showman star added.

Strangely, it’s not even the most bizarre biopic released – there’s plenty to sink your teeth into while waiting for Better Man to release in cinemas on December 26th.

Pharrell Williams wanted to be made of LEGO for his biopic (Image: Getty)

Another 2024 release, Pharrell Williams decided he wanted the story of his life told entirely in LEGO. The movie sees the musician suggest: “You know what would be cool? If we told my story with LEGO pieces. Just be open.

“I was not interested in doing a film on my life, because I don’t particularly have the level of objectivity that most artists do. It gave me an amount of degrees of separation and disassociation that allowed me to look at myself more objectively.”

The Happy hitmaker also wanted the film to appeal to kids after launching the Build the Change campaign with LEGO into schools.

Karen Carpenter's biopic starred her as a Barbie doll (Image: Getty)

Released in 1987, Todd Haynes wanted to create a docudrama based on The Carpenters star Karen Carpenter – out of Barbie dolls.

The film explores Karen’s battle with anorexia and how her band influenced 70s culture, using stop motion animation using the dolls with voice actors speaking over them. It took just 10 days to film.

The reason behind the Barbie dolls is obvious – the slim, impossible to attain female figures have been slammed over the years for pushing unachievable beauty standards on young women. But the movie ended up banned after Karen’s brother Richard Carpenter sued the director for copyright infringement.

The film is no longer in circulation, though a few bootleg copies do exist.

A fictional version of Celine Dion was used in Aline (Image: Getty)

Released in 2021, Aline is more of a musical comedy-drama than a straight biopic. What’s unique about it, you ask? Well, it follows a fictionalised version of Celine Dion – Aline Dieu.

The film stars Valerie Lemercier, who in a bizarre twist of fate, decided to play ‘Aline’ at every stage of her life rather than hiring child actors to embody her childhood. This meant her face and body had to be digitally altered to make her look age-appropriate.

Celine’s family weren’t happy about the movie, slamming it for various factual inaccuracies – but Celine herself hasn’t offered comment.

Timothee Chalamet is set to play Bob Dylan (Image: Getty)

While Timothee Chalamet is set to take on the role of Bob Dylan for upcoming 2024 biopic A Complete Unknown, he’s far from the first actor to do so.

In fact, a record six Hollywood stars portrayed the musician in 2007 musical drama I’m Not There. Directed by Todd Haynes – yes, the same Haynes behind Karen Carpenter’s controversial film – it starred Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw – all as Dylan.

The six actors portrayed different aspects of the singer’s personality, his public personas. The singer’s only real appearance in the movie, meanwhile, comes in archival concert footage from 1966, shown in the very final moments.