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Robbie Williams is one of the biggest-selling artists of all time. And a new musical called Better Man, based around the singer's life, just got a $25 million commitment from Paramount.
In terms of scope, it's the biggest deal in North America for an independent deal in years, Deadline reports.
Paramount latches on to Robbie Williams's Better Man movie
Michael Gracey directs the film. It covers the rise of Robbie Williams, who rose to fame in the '90s with hits like Angel and Rock DJ. The film touches on the triumphs and turbulence as he battled issues on and off stage.
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At 16, Williams found fame as a singer in the boyband Take That. However, he blew up overseas when he went solo. Eleven of his 12 studio albums went to number one in the UK. Six of the albums were the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the country. Though he was massive in the UK, he didn't have quite the success in the U.S.
Gracey said of the movie, “I want to do this in a really original way. I remember going to the cinema as a kid and there were films that blew me away and made me say as I sat there in the cinema, ‘I've never seen this before.' I just want the audience to have that feeling. It's so important when they watch this story, and look at the screen, that they literally think, I've never seen this before. All I can say is the approach is top secret, but the goal is to generate that feeling I just described. It's this fantastical story, and I want to represent it in its harsh reality all the way to these moments of pure fantasy.”
Robbie Williams may have never really tapped into the U.S. market, but that could all change after Better Man.
