Exclusive: Paramount Pictures has made a $25 million commitment for North American theatrical rights A better mana coming-of-age musical fantasy directed by Michael Gracey, the director of the blockbuster musical Greatest Showman. The film revolves around the unexpected rise of famous singer-songwriter Robbie Williams.
The deal marks the biggest North American deal of the year for an independent film in years, and Paramount will give it a full theatrical run later this year. The studio is coming off a success I mean girlsWhich topped the box office last month and has grossed $92 million so far. The studio is aggressively rolling out globally Bob Marley: One Lovea film that opens on February 14, as Paramount leans toward films in the musical sphere.
Rolling out A better man The lateness of the year gives the studio plenty of time to take on the challenge in the US and Canada for the enigma that is Robbie Williams. He’s one of the biggest music artists around the world, but even though he spends most of his time in the US, he remains somewhat of a secret here. Williams better stay away from all those trips to the mall because by late this year, it won’t be a secret anymore, and there’s an entire market that will have the opportunity to discover his music catalog.
Deadline broke the story about him A better man When the package was in Berlin 2021, when CAA Media Finance arranged financing and represented domestic distribution rights, with Thorsten Schumacher at Rocket Science handling international sales.
Gracie wrote the screenplay with first-time screenwriters Oliver Cole and Simon Gleeson. The film tells the story of Williams’ rise, exploring the experiences that made him who he is now, and the demons he battled on and off the stage to become a major star on the back of hits like Angels. It’s a very original exercise in storytelling.
Produced by Paul Currie, Gracie, Coco Xiao Lu Ma, Jules Daly and Craig McMahon. The pic was funded by Sina Studios and Facing East, and was filmed on location in Victoria, Australia and at Docklands Studios with support from the Victorian Government, VicScreen and Screen Australia’s Producer Offset Programme.
Williams first became famous when he was 16 as a singer in the boy band Take That, but has achieved great success as a solo artist. It happened quickly, with 11 of his 12 studio albums hitting No. 1 in the UK, and six of them among the top 100 best-selling albums there. His tours sell out instantly and he has entered the Guinness World Record for selling 1.6 million tour tickets in one day. He has long been a provocative and outsized global figure, except in the United States. Deadline spoke with Gracey at the time and it was clear that the director was up to something extraordinary here, just as he did with his musical PT Barnum, which was a surprise hit with a total of $434 million. Paramount is keen on Gracey, and is also developing a musical version of the best-selling book Nevermore That Drew Goddard adapts.
Gracey said the film came about after hours of flowing conversations he had with Williams, a process that began after that Greatest Showman In Los Angeles and London, it took a few years to find a handle for a movie. Williams’ hit songs are part of the film’s package.
“I want to do this in a really innovative way,” Gracey told Deadline at the time. “I remember going to the cinema when I was a kid and there were films that amazed me and made me say, sitting there in the cinema, ‘I’ve never seen this before.’ I just want the audience to have that feeling. It’s very important when they watch this story, and look at the screen, that they think “Literally, I’ve never seen this before. All I can say is that this approach is very discreet, but the goal is to generate that feeling that I just described. It’s this fairy tale, and I want to represent it in its harsh reality right down to these moments of pure fantasy.”
Williams’ character, ambition and insecurity will be on full display and explored in these long conversations. It will be different from modern musical films like bohemian rhapsody And Rocket man Whereas Williams was not a prodigy like Freddie Mercury and Elton John.
“Unlike some people who are born prodigies or musical geniuses and the world follows their story to catch up with their brilliance, this is not that story,” Gracey told Deadline. “Robbie is this guy who had big dreams and followed those dreams and they took him to an incredible place. Because of that, his story is incredibly relatable. He’s not the best singer or dancer, and yet he’s managed to sell 80 million records worldwide.” You can relate to the man who didn’t see himself as having any extraordinary talent, even though of course he did. What he had was the will and the vision and the confidence to say, ‘I’m going to pursue my dream.’ For us as an audience, it’s a window into the world. What if we went in and chased that dream? The impossible that many of us have put aside.
“Robbie was incredibly famous when he was 16, and they often say, and I think this is true, that you have to stop maturing emotionally and mentally at any age that you become famous,” Gracey said. “You look at people who get famous at a young age, and all the challenges that make you grow, all the things that you have to deal with on an emotional level, are taken care of or pushed to the side. You have a mechanism around you that allows you to remain immature, and allows you to have Whatever you want, and throwing a tantrum. That doesn’t happen to the rest of us. And it’s interesting to watch someone who has all this at 16, and stay 16 his whole life. This whole scenario came about hours after Robbie and I got together in this recording studio The one at his house. We’d just leave the mic on the record and talk for hours. Some of the sessions weren’t great, and in the last five minutes he’d say something so sincere and honest, it blew me away. I think if I were writing a screenplay, I’d never be able to come up with a great line like that.
Gracey believes that the film’s unconventional narrative style and the artist’s opportunity to be seen in America can be an asset to the film when a large audience can discover it.
“Worldwide, it’s huge here in Australia and big in Europe, and for whatever reason, it hasn’t penetrated the American market,” Gracey said. “That’s why he lives there, because he can go down the street without his clothes getting ripped. I look at it like people everywhere outside the United States are going to hear these songs and they’re going to know every single one of them. Within the United States, hopefully, they’ll welcome him the same way they did.” her when they met Greatest Showman. They didn’t know those songs, yet people fell in love with them and made them their own. I think it would be the same with A better man. They will meet music for the first time and it will be really beautiful, because it will be in the context of the film’s story.
CAA Media Finance brokered the deal. Rocket Science sold all foreign territories for the film.
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