Robbie Williams on ‘Better Man,’ Musical Films and Monkeys

December 4, 2024

—

By Adam Tanswell

 

 

 

From “Cabaret” and “A Star is Born” through to “The Lion King” and “Les Misérables,” a mesmerizing array of musical movies have won at the Golden Globe Awards. For close to a century, audiences have been captivated by song-filled stories created by musically-enthused filmmakers – and the 2024 lineup from the genre offers a number of cinematic surprises.

 

This year’s eclectic list of musical movie releases includes a Disney animation, “Moana 2,” and a DC Comics sequel with Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker: Folie À Deux.” There are “Wicked,” a blockbusting behemoth that serves as an eye-popping prequel to “The Wizard Of Oz,” as well as a cartel-centered operatic crime comedy, “Emilia Pérez.” There’s also “Piece By Piece,” a Pharrell Williams biopic told through the medium of a LEGO animation. The list goes on and on.

 

The tumultuous life story of chart-topping British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams is the subject of another musical biopic released in 2024, albeit with a bit of a twist. For “Better Man,” the famed U.K. musician is portrayed by a CGI chimpanzee. Yes, it’s the true story of the Take That pop star with a proverbial “performing monkey” in the lead role.

 

If you’re a fan of Robbie Williams, you might be pleased to know that not all of his facial features are hidden on the big screen. “They are my eyes on the monkey,” chuckles the singer, speaking to goldenglobes.com via Zoom from Switzerland. “You know, that’s the magic of cinema. They mapped my face as part of the process. You go into a cage with 150 cameras and you’re asked to pull 120 different facial expressions. It’s incredible.”

 

Why a CGI chimpanzee? “Oh, I just love eccentricity,” enthuses Williams. “I love the surreal, so it made complete sense to me when [‘Better Man’ writer-director-producer] Michael Gracey pitched the idea. I don’t think we’d have had as many people talking about the film had we not had the monkey in it. It’s unusual, and that’s exactly why I love it.”

 

Over the years, a select number of jukebox musical biopics, including Elton John’s “Rocketman” and Freddie Mercury’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” have been criticized for sugarcoating the truth or glossing over some of the finer biographic details of a story. With “Better Man,” Williams is adamant that the R-rated narrative is very true-to-life.

 

“It’s been pointed out to me that it’s very unusual to be so willing to divulge so much about my problematic personality,” the 50-year-old admits during our candid Zoom conversation. “I only realize it’s unusual when people say, ‘Hey, that’s unusual.’ And I go, ‘Is it? Okay.’ Where the other biopics have had to be sanitized because their people fear for their intellectual property, I lean into being problematic. I’m okay about showing you my demons. I’m okay with showing you exactly what they look like. Where authenticity is concerned, my story and my film works. It may not have happened in that order, but that’s certainly how it felt.”

 

Many of the musical movie contenders for the upcoming 82nd Golden Globe Awards feature original songs. For “Moana 2,”Auli’i Cravalho belts out “Beyond.” For “Emilia Pérez,” Selena Gomez sings the intoxicating “Mi Camino,” while Zoe Saldaña rocks out with “El Mal.” For “Better Man,” Williams spent months trying to create a meaningful new track for the movie’s closing credits.

 

“I’d sent a few songs to Michael Gracey over the months and years before the film came out,” reveals the singer. “He would always say to me, ‘No, that’s not it. No, not that one.’ Then I remembered a story about ‘Lose Yourself’ and ‘8 Mile.’ Eminem sent the song to the director of the movie, who told him, ‘It’s not good enough.’ But it ended up being in the movie.”

 

Williams pauses for thought and accidentally nudges his New Kids On The Block baseball cap into frame. He smiles before concluding: “With everything that I was sending over to Michael, I kept thinking, ‘No, he’s got this wrong. What does he know? Stick to making a film and I’ll do the music.’ But then I saw the film and I realized completely what was needed. At the end of the film, you just need a hug. That’s when I set about creating a song that was a massive hug for the audience, along with [co-songwriters] Sacha Skarbek and Freddy Wexler. ‘Forbidden Road’ is the result.”

 

Will an all-new musical win in the Best Movie – Musical Or Comedy category at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards? And who will walk home with the Golden Globe for original song? Find out when the glittering ceremony airs live on CBS on Sunday, January 5, 2025, at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.

 

ENDS

 

 

https://goldenglobes.com/articles/robbie-wi...ms-and-monkeys/

You got your wish for Graham Norton Tess :cheer:

 

Isn't Wicked the biggest film of the year?

 

That must be favourite to win a Golden Globe? :mellow:

In Madrid tonight

 

Edited December 4, 2024Dec 4 by Laura130262

Well, while there are no any sales stats, I've prepared some another interesting (I hope) data. Will share it this evening.

Well, as promised you, I tried to collect all important dates of 'Better Man' movie: first screenings, premieres and some other important dates for Awards season at all.

Come on, u know!

 

-----

 

Festivals:

30.08.2024 - Telluride Film Festival (US) - World premiere

10.09.2024 - Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) (Canada) - Canadian premiere

25.09.2024 - Fantastic Fest (US)

10.10.2024 - Mill Valley Film Festival (US)

16.10.2024 - Santa Fe International Film Festival (US)

22.10.2024 - Chicago International Film Festival (US)

29.10.2024 - SCAD Savannah Film Festival (US)

02.11.2024 - Miami Film Festival GEMS (US)

20.11.2024 - International Film Festival of India (IFFI) (India) - Asian premiere

04.12.2024 - Festival International De Cine De Los Cabos (FICC) (Mexico) - Latin America premiere

08.12.2024 - Whistler Film Festival (Canada) - Western Canadian premiere

14.12.2024 - Red Sea Film Festival (Saudi Arabia) - Middle East premiere

02.01.2025 - Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) (US)

 

Special premieres:

27.09.2024 - UK & European premiere (London, Odeon)

04.12.2024 - Spanish premiere (Madrid)

06.12.2024 - Italian premiere (Rome)

08.12.2024 - German premiere (Cologne)

10.12.2024 - Dutch premiere (Amsterdam)

13.12.2024 - French premiere (Paris, Le Grand Rex)

 

Other dates:

08.10.2024 - AACTA - Members Screening (Australia)

25.10.2024 - Film Independent - Members Screening (US)

16.11.2024 - Deadline Contenders Film (US)

26.12.2024 - Better Man - Worldwide cinema release

10.01.2025 - Better Man - US wide cinema release

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The most important the 2025 Movie Awards dates:

09.12.2024 - Nominations announcement for Golden Globes

05.01.2025 - Golden Globes Award

15.01.2025 - Nominations announcement for BAFTA

17.01.2025 - Nominations announcement for Oscar

16.02.2025 - BAFTA

03.03.2025 - Oscar

 

P.S.

More dates here:

https://www.goldderby.com/feature/2025-osca...s-2-1205955652/

 

---

 

If I forgot something, please let me know and we will add it.

BAFTA reminded me of that lyric from "By all means necessary" 😂

BAFTA reminded me of that lyric from "By all means necessary" 😂

 

Was it rude? :lol:

Well, as promised you, I tried to collect all important dates of 'Better Man' movie: first screenings, premieres and some other important dates for Awards season at all.

Come on, u know!

 

-----

 

Festivals:

30.08.2024 - Telluride Film Festival (US) - World premiere

10.09.2024 - Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) (Canada) - Canadian premiere

25.09.2024 - Fantastic Fest (US)

10.10.2024 - Mill Valley Film Festival (US)

16.10.2024 - Santa Fe International Film Festival (US)

22.10.2024 - Chicago International Film Festival (US)

29.10.2024 - SCAD Savannah Film Festival (US)

02.11.2024 - Miami Film Festival GEMS (US)

20.11.2024 - International Film Festival of India (IFFI) (India) - Asian premiere

04.12.2024 - Festival International De Cine De Los Cabos (FICC) (Mexico) - Latin America premiere

08.12.2024 - Whistler Film Festival (Canada) - Western Canadian premiere

14.12.2024 - Red Sea Film Festival (Saudi Arabia) - Middle East premiere

02.01.2025 - Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) (US)

 

Special premieres:

27.09.2024 - UK & European premiere (London, Odeon)

04.12.2024 - Spanish premiere (Madrid)

06.12.2024 - Italian premiere (Rome)

08.12.2024 - German premiere (Cologne)

10.12.2024 - Dutch premiere (Cologne)

13.12.2024 - French premiere (Paris, Le Grand Rex)

 

Other dates:

08.10.2024 - AACTA - Members Screening (Australia)

25.10.2024 - Film Independent - Members Screening (US)

16.11.2024 - Deadline Contenders Film (US)

26.12.2024 - Better Man - Worldwide cinema release

10.01.2025 - Better Man - US wide cinema release

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The most important the 2025 Movie Awards dates:

09.12.2024 - Nominations announcement for Golden Globes

05.01.2025 - Golden Globes Award

15.01.2025 - Nominations announcement for BAFTA

17.01.2025 - Nominations announcement for Oscar

16.02.2025 - BAFTA

03.03.2025 - Oscar

 

P.S.

More dates here:

https://www.goldderby.com/feature/2025-osca...s-2-1205955652/

 

---

 

If I forgot something, please let me know and we will add it.

 

Thanks for these Alex

 

exciting times ahead :cheer:

Robbie Williams - Angels (Official Audio - Taken from 'Better Man' Soundtrack) ft. Adam Tucker

 

Edited December 6, 2024Dec 6 by Sydney11

Well, as promised you, I tried to collect all important dates of 'Better Man' movie: first screenings, premieres and some other important dates for Awards season at all.

Come on, u know!

 

-----

 

Festivals:

30.08.2024 - Telluride Film Festival (US) - World premiere

10.09.2024 - Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) (Canada) - Canadian premiere

25.09.2024 - Fantastic Fest (US)

10.10.2024 - Mill Valley Film Festival (US)

16.10.2024 - Santa Fe International Film Festival (US)

22.10.2024 - Chicago International Film Festival (US)

29.10.2024 - SCAD Savannah Film Festival (US)

02.11.2024 - Miami Film Festival GEMS (US)

20.11.2024 - International Film Festival of India (IFFI) (India) - Asian premiere

04.12.2024 - Festival International De Cine De Los Cabos (FICC) (Mexico) - Latin America premiere

08.12.2024 - Whistler Film Festival (Canada) - Western Canadian premiere

14.12.2024 - Red Sea Film Festival (Saudi Arabia) - Middle East premiere

02.01.2025 - Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) (US)

 

Special premieres:

27.09.2024 - UK & European premiere (London, Odeon)

04.12.2024 - Spanish premiere (Madrid)

06.12.2024 - Italian premiere (Rome)

08.12.2024 - German premiere (Cologne)

10.12.2024 - Dutch premiere (Amsterdam)

13.12.2024 - French premiere (Paris, Le Grand Rex)

 

Other dates:

08.10.2024 - AACTA - Members Screening (Australia)

25.10.2024 - Film Independent - Members Screening (US)

16.11.2024 - Deadline Contenders Film (US)

26.12.2024 - Better Man - Worldwide cinema release

10.01.2025 - Better Man - US wide cinema release

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The most important the 2025 Movie Awards dates:

09.12.2024 - Nominations announcement for Golden Globes

05.01.2025 - Golden Globes Award

15.01.2025 - Nominations announcement for BAFTA

17.01.2025 - Nominations announcement for Oscar

16.02.2025 - BAFTA

03.03.2025 - Oscar

 

P.S.

More dates here:

https://www.goldderby.com/feature/2025-osca...s-2-1205955652/

 

---

 

If I forgot something, please let me know and we will add it.

 

 

Thanks Alex. Interesting that US wide cinema release is not until JAN 10th ..

Edited December 6, 2024Dec 6 by Sydney11

I loooooooooove that Adam Tucker has vocals in this. Always thought it was a shame when Pitch Battle (TV Contest show) didn't take off, but he was one of the standouts from the winning choir

Thanks Herbs, I had never heard of Adam Tucker.

 

Interesting piece in article below ..

 

Norfolk's Adam Tucker in Robbie Williams biopic Better Man

 

It was a "pinch me moment" for a Norfolk singer when he was cast in the upcoming Robbie Williams biopic.

 

Better Man is directed by Michael Gracey, who was also behind The Greatest Showman.

 

Adam Tucker, 30, from King's Lynn, provides the vocals on many of Williams' chart-topping songs in the film. This includes She's The One, Angels and Let Me Entertain You, with new recordings required to match the emotion and pacing of the biopic.

 

Mr Tucker's friend knew the vocal contractor working on Better Man and recommended him as he "sounds a bit like a young Robbie Williams". Mr Tucker said: "You spend so long grinding away trying to get the next gig, so getting the part was one of those pinch-me moments. "I went to the London premiere and hearing my voice play out across the cinema was amazing." Mr Tucker, who studied music in Leeds, also fronts King's Lynn band The Summertime Kings. With vocal group the Leeds Contemporary Singers, he won the BBC One talent contest Pitch Battle in 2017.

 

Better Man chronicles Williams' extraordinary life and career, including his rise to fame with Take That and his explosive solo career. It also delves into his personal battles and he is portrayed as a chimpanzee using CGI. Explaining the reason for this in the trailer, he said he feels "a little less evolved" than other people.

 

Despite singing many of Williams' songs in Better Man, Mr Tucker has not met him yet. He said: "I was hoping to meet him at the premiere but he is a very busy man, hopefully we will in the future - he is very aware of who I am." Going forward, Mr Tucker is planning to use the film as a springboard to release original music.

 

He added: "Creating my own music has always been my true passion and I can’t wait to share these songs with the world."

 

Better Man will be released in UK cinemas on Boxing Day.

 

 

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24773453.norfo...pic-better-man/

Edited December 6, 2024Dec 6 by Sydney11

There's a really cute moment here when his group won their heat and sang with Will Young

 

Edited December 6, 2024Dec 6 by Herbs

There's a really cute moment here when his group won their heat and sang with Will Young

 

 

 

That's a nice surprise , I had forgotten about that show , Nice to see Adam Tucker doing so well for himself . Also reminds me what a beautiful singer Will Young is .

BETTER MAN ****

 

Published 13 hours ago on Dec 6, 2024By Callie Petch

Released: 26th December 2024

 

Director: Michael Gracey

 

Starring: Robbie Williams (narration & singing), Jonno Davies (acting & motion capture), Steve Pemberton, Alison Steadman, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno

 

Let’s address the, err, monkey in the room: yes, it’s a gimmick. You could tell the story of Better Man in the way that it ultimately plays out without having Robbie Williams represented as a CGI monkey played by Jonno Davies (with Williams himself doing retrospective narration and all the singing). As bizarre as the concept sounds, it is not commented on in the film itself and director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) doesn’t play into the potential absurdity of a monkey snorting enough cocaine to keep Tony Montana in business for a year single-handedly.

 

The monkey is, by definition, a gimmick designed for three interlocking meta-textual reasons. The first? To intrigue people who normally wouldn’t give a damn about a Robbie Williams biopic. A Robbie biopic may be Black Panther to wine mums and queers in their 30s/40s (guilty as charged), but you also have to get the non-converted in and a WTF gimmick like replacing the star with a CGI monkey grabs attention. The second is that it frees up Gracey and co. from the usual biopic straitjacket of needing to cast somebody who looks, sounds, and physically acts like the star, often with a distractingly technical and fundamentally soulless mimic that nonetheless wins awards *coughcoughRamiMalekcough*. Instead, behind the Wētā-assisted mo-cap, Davies gets to give a performance that’s all soul: the cocktail of nervous theatre kid energy, deep-seated abandonment issues, narcissistic showmanship, and an addict’s destructive self-absorption which made up Britain’s biggest pop star of the late-90s/early-2000s.

 

The third and most important reason for the monkey is that it functions as a gauntlet thrown down to the viewer. Whilst adhering to the standard ‘rise-fall-redemption via montage and climactic performance’ beats of damn-near every music biopic ever made, even after Walk Hard mercilessly roasted them to within an inch of their life, Better Man is not afraid to get fanciful in its presentation of the ten-year-stretch from Robbie’s successful Take That audition to his record-breaking Knebworth gigs as a solo artist. Whilst never at risk of being labelled anything other than a crowd-pleaser, Gracey’s film also takes more cross-genre and dramatic risks than your I Wanna Dance with Somebodys and Back to Blacks which, as a result, more faithfully capture the spirit of its subject than most recent music biopics.

 

It’s a jukebox musical akin to the Elton John’s Rocketman, for one thing. This is where Gracey’s prior experience helming Greatest Showman becomes most apparent, and they are some bloody good musical numbers at that. Unlike the rightly forgotten Take That jukebox musical, Greatest Days, Robbie’s songs take to the West End-esque rearranging shockingly well. “Rock DJ” becomes the centrepiece for a gigantic faux-one-take number down Oxford Street symbolising Take That’s dizzying rise. “Angels” leans into its mainstay status as one of the UK’s most popular funeral songs for a crosscut between a moment of devastating personal loss and the popstar job grind’s inability to let Robbie process said. “She’s the One” begins as a one-on-one dance number consciously calling back to the Zendaya/Zac Efron duet in Showman, only to then juxtapose that thrill of first love between Robbie and All Saints member Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno) with flashes of the music industry’s suffocating cruelty which would drive a wedge between them later. And if I told you what “Let Me Entertain You” soundtracks, you simply would not believe me; it’s the biggest swing in a movie not lacking for them. These numbers are fittingly audacious, directed with style and energy, enough to cause bursts of spontaneous applause at my industry screening.

 

Yet, Better Man is less Bohemian Rhapsody and more BoJack Horseman. A comparison made not because both works treat their anthropomorphic leads getting handjobs from barely-adult fans as unworthy of comment, and because both are more interested in and unsympathetic about the ways that fame screws with the heads of those caught in its whirlwind. Those who’ve watched Robbie’s excellent and revealing self-titled 2023 Netflix documentary series will already be aware. This is a man who can get uncomfortably candid about his many, many failings over the years, and that self-reflective spirit makes its way into Better Man. Gracey and co-writers Oliver Cole & Simon Gleeson’s script pins much of Robbie’s dysfunction on the early abandonment by his wannabe-cabaret father (Steve Pemberton), a specific working-class Midlands fear of amounting to nothing in life and being trapped mentally at age 16 in an industry and cultural climate where “depression” was a dirty word. His crippling imposter syndrome becomes very effectively personified like a horror movie spirit, self-loathing affirmations dancing across the surround speakers as multiple versions of himself stare daggers through crowds like It Follows has gate-crashed the set.

 

But Better Man’s also very up-front about the fact that Robbie is, as admitted in his opening monologue and the narration going forward, more than a bit of “a f***ing twat.” An often spiteful, over-confident, self-destructive bellend preternaturally drawn to sticking his foot in it, pissing away every last penny of sympathy he could possibly accrue, and lashing out venomously when called on his bullshit. Much like BoJack, Robbie is someone easy to empathise with, hard to like, and sometimes harder to watch as he makes one bad decision after another, trying to use both his untreated depression and his too-big-to-fail fame as excuses for his actions but not an impetus to get better. A man who even when he’s right, like when he dresses down his father for only being there for “Robbie” and never “Robert,” can’t help but come off like kind of an asshole in doing so.

 

For a genre which, by and large, exists primarily as brand-management – even more so nowadays as the subjects, estates, and venture capitalists who own the back catalogue rights of musicians in question get their fingers even deeper into the filmmaking process – it is a surprisingly messy portrait. Not to say the binge isn’t entertaining to watch, since Robbie has the kind of gigantic quote-ready character which could singlehandedly shift millions of tabloids back in the day, and Gracey directs this thing like he’s on a binge of his own; the “Land of 1,000 Dances” montage is a masterclass in curdling a fun time into something sinister. But it is a film very aware that its subject is a polarising figure and leans into that for both cocky fun, the last lines are literally “I’m an entertainer and if you don’t like that, go f*** yourselves,” and self-critical drama. As early as his performance of Pirates of Penzance in a school play, Better Man makes clear the character flaws within Robbie that the addictive rush of fame will exploit and metastasize to alienating and near-fatal ends.

 

Paradoxically, Gracey and co. may have been too successful in their approach. Because after two hours of picking at the scabs of Robbie’s worst qualities until only the bones remain, it’s almost like everybody has only just remembered that they need to send the crowd home happy. The resulting ‘redemption’ phase of the standard music biopic arc, therefore, can’t help but come off as even more insincere than usual. If you spend this long tearing down a character, one musical montage showing them fixing their shit isn’t going to cut it, no matter how much you lean into musical precedent; ditto the beats involving his father. To be fair, Better Man is already starting to feel a bit exhausting by the two-hour mark (right as it hits “Let Me Entertain You”), so I’m not sure an additional reel of film would help things per se. Yet that doesn’t change the fact that the ending is a slight whiff, preventing the film from fully reaching true greatness.

 

Despite just missing out on being the best music biopic in years (non-KNEECAP division), and putting my innate Robbie Williams bias aside, it’s really hard not to commend Better Man. Gracey’s film, whilst still adhering to familiar beats, is one unafraid to go for gigantic swings at every possible opportunity. Whether that be a musical number set to an attempted car crash-suicide, a depiction of self-loathing depression that’s more unsettling than a lot of ‘elevated’ horror covering the same topic, a willingness to let its subject be a complete tosser, or even just making Robbie a monkey for the heck of it. Yeah, the monkey may ultimately be a gimmick, but it’s a gimmick indicative of filmmakers willing to just go for it. After the dire slate of films which have released in 2024, we need more of that kind of energy even when it comes to something as seemingly staid as a Robbie Williams biopic.

 

https://moviemarker.co.uk/better-man-%e2%98...98%85%e2%98%85/

 

 

@1864994500826779996

Edited December 6, 2024Dec 6 by Sydney11

I wonder why 'I Found Heaven' was chosen to represent early Take That considering they all hated it! It was the only song written by the producer, not Gary, and not only that but the producer supplemented Robbie's vocals with Billy Griffin's so the whole song is hardly flattering.

 

Most Take That fans have forgotten about the song.

 

Relight My Fire I can understand for the joyous nature, huge success, and striking visuals they had performing it on tour.

Edited December 6, 2024Dec 6 by nirvanamusic

I wonder why 'I Found Heaven' was chosen to represent early Take That considering they all hated it! It was the only song written by the producer, not Gary, and not only that but the producer supplemented Robbie's vocals with Billy Griffin's so the whole song is hardly flattering.

 

Most Take That fans have forgotten about the song.

 

Relight My Fire I can understand for the joyous nature, huge success, and striking visuals they had performing it on tour.

 

 

 

It was Michael Gracey Betterman's movie director who selected the songs for the movie so I guess those he picked fit in with the storyline . When it came to Forbidden Road Michael Gracey rejected loads of songs that Robbie had sent him for the very reason that they did not fit with the movie. I think all will be revealed once we see the movie itself .

 

HARRY JUDD ( McFly ) & ALEX JONES discuss Better Man ( Link to Podcast below )

 

 

Harry Judd and Alex Jones are back, this time with their reviews of the upcoming Robbie Williams biopic 'Better Man', with Harry dropping an absolute bombshell revelation! Joining them for this episode is singing superstar, Michael Ball. Find out how Michael ended up on the set of Love Island during a family holiday, why he's so obsessed with Game of Thrones that he's watched it 3 times! And his ultimate podcast of choice; it's a gem!

 

Harry and Alex also share their thoughts on Blitz (Apple+) and The Penguin (Sky Atlantic)

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/mcfly...i=1000679279478

There are some really great posters have been released for December releases.

'Better Man' is in a good company.

 

My faves are for 'Nosferatu', maybe because I'm waiting for this movie so much - this is my fave of movie season.

The font makes sense.

 

 

https://thefilmstage.com/posterized-december-2024/

 

Posterized December 2024: Nosferatu, The Brutalist, The End & More

Jared Mobarak○December 6, 2024

Wild concept for the film aside (a biopic about Robbie Williams where he’s played by a motion-captured, CGI chimpanzee), Better Man’s (limited, December 25; wide, January 10) marketing campaign is effectively simple. The subject is a pop star who’s made a career in the spotlight of magazine covers and paparazzi photos, so why not lean into that experience while trying to humanize the tuxedoed primate filling his shoes?

 

BOND pretty much creates a mock-up Rolling Stone cover for the first poster while The Refinery gives us an “in the wild” shot of Chimp Williams glaring through a sea of media types at what appears to be a red-carpet event. The latter is fun in its juxtaposition (including the tagline “Fame makes moneys of us all” despite chimpanzees being apes), but I’m a big fan of the former for its dedication to the bit. Here is your icon legitimized by a mainstream publication. What more do you need?