Paramount Pictures released a trailer for Better Man, a movie that employs a CG monkey to portray pop star Robbie Williams.
"I know what you're thinking," Williams says in the preview. "What's with the monkey?"
Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey, who developed the film after 18 hours of interviews with Williams, said in a Vanity Fair interview that the monkey captured how Williams felt about himself.
"To see himself as a performing monkey wasn't just whilst he was famous," Gracey said. "It was his whole life...And it made it so powerful for me because I was like, 'You're going to fall in love with this character, this little monkey. And you're going to invest emotionally in this little monkey.' As long as you set that contract at the start of the film, you're in, and you will go with that monkey through the entire journey."
Gracey directed the film, and serves as one of its producers and writers.
Williams lends his voice to the monkey as the biopic chronicles his "meteoric rise, dramatic fall, and remarkable resurgence," and the story takes viewers from his childhood to stardom, an official description says.
Jonno Davies, Steve Pemberton, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Alison Steadman, Kate Mulvaney, Frazer Hadfield, Tom Budge and Anthony Hayes also star.
The film premieres Jan. 17, with select showings to begin Dec. 25.