Robbie Williams’ movie biopic in crisis after he fails to find lead actor to play him despite extensive search
ROBBIE Williams has been left “stunned” at the “difficulties” in finding an actor to play the younger version of him in his new biopic.
The Rock DJ legend, 48, who hails from Stoke-on-Trent, is struggling to find someone with an appropriate Stokie twang and demeanour to pull off his teenage antics on-screen.
The ex Take That vocalist’s new film project has already been made public, and given the title Better Man.
It will be directed by The Greatest Showman’s head honcho Michael Gracey, who was at the helm of the hit musical starring Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron.
Better Man will tell the story of Robbie‘s rise to fame — as well as his battles with drink and drugs.
Yet the casting chaos is causing a headache, with a source telling The Mirror: “Michael and Robbie held top-secret auditions to find a star to play the young Robbie recently.
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“They didn’t meet anyone they were confident could pull it off.
“Robbie is stunned at how difficult the project has been to get made. And now he’s starting to worry it’s never going to make it to the big screen and he’ll look foolish for hyping it up.”
They continued: “The London-based studio, Rocket Science, is handling international sales on the project and is hoping for a big hit.
“Robbie has fans all over the world and his story is not short of drama.
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“But if they can’t find a star charismatic enough to play him, the whole house of cards is going to come falling down and it’ll end up in development hell.”
US SUCCESS?
While Robbie is a household name here and went to No1 with his debut solo album Life Through A Lens, Michael is convinced the movie will finally rocket the singer’s career to new heights in the US.
The film will feature new versions of his top songs, which are being re-recorded to fit each scene.
The director said: “For whatever reason, he didn’t crack that US market.
“Inside the US, they will hopefully greet it the same way as when they met The Greatest Showman. They didn’t know those songs, and yet people fell in love with them and made them their own.
“I think it will be the same with Better Man. They will be meeting the music for the first time and it’ll be beautiful, because it will be in the context of the narrative of the film.”
Previously, Michael teased: “As for how we represent Robbie in the film, that bit is top secret.
“I want to do this in a really original way. It’s this fantastical story and I want to represent it in its harsh reality all the way to these moments of pure fantasy.”
The biopic follows a string of blockbusters focused on superstars including Bohemian Rhapsody about Freddie Mercury and Rocketman about SIR Elton John.
Robbie, who has four kids with wife Ayda Field, has released a string of books documenting his rollercoaster journey as a pop star, but it was conversations with him which have inspired the script.
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Michael said he spent several hours with Robbie at his mansion in Los Angeles talking about his life to make sure the story is spot on.
During his incredible career spanning more than 30 years, Robbie has scored 17 No1 albums, toured the world and had his fair share of scandals.
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