Biographical films have long been favoured by Hollywood studios for their prestige while offering actors the kind of meaty roles that win audiences – and Oscars. This year’s Oppenheimer was no exception, winning in seven categories including best film, best director and best actor. The film employed creative licence to dramatise the life of J Robert Oppenheimer, the iconic physicist and wartime director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, as he and his fellow atomic scientists and engineers raced to develop the first atomic bomb in the early 1940s. But did the movie push those liberties far enough? That’s the question asked by new biopics that place perhaps a greater value on interpretation, not just documentation. The first is the upcoming musical biopic Better Man, in which rock star Robbie Williams is portrayed as a chimpanzee, while everyone else around him remains human. Directed by Michael Gracey, the filmmaker behind The Greatest Showman – a $435m grossing hit – the film is released on Boxing Day in the UK. It follows the chimp version of Williams from a fractious childhood to boy-band fame with Take That and, later, solo superstardom.
Hot on its heels comes Piece by Piece, a $16m musical documentary – the first Lego documentary – about hip-hop superstar Pharrell Williams. Williams wrote five new tracks for the film and took care to ensure the Lego versions of his friends, family and collaborators were as true to life as blocky mini-figures could be. His top priority? Nailing the hairstyles for fellow rappers Pusha T, Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg.
