Whilst many of us were astounded to find that the latest film to release starring a CGI monkey WASN’T a Planet of The Apes movie, more were probably shocked to find it to be a Robbie Williams biopic. More so than the fact that the former Take-That member was playing an ape version of himself in a bio-pic is that the film is, surprisingly, quite good.

Having been received well by the majority of fans and critics, the film is an exciting and – tyo be frank – entirely original way of telling a biographical story. Though this film with its fantastical iconic dance number on London’s iconic Regent Street nearly never happened due to a certain reigning monarch’s passing.

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How Queen Elizabeth’s Death Nearly Prevented The Filming of Better Man’s Dance Sequence

Better Man, directed by Helmer Michael Gracey – the visionary behind Hugh Jackman’s The Greatest Showman – inspired by The Wolverine actor decided to create the film around Robbie Williams and his rise to fame from his controversial relationship with stardum to becoming the voice that millions of Brits know and love to this day.

As his story of P.T. Barney demonstrates, Gracey has an eye for intense and original dance sequences such as the one shot on Regent Street to the song ‘Rock DJ’. This sequence was used heavily in the marketing of the movie, and possibly contributed to a great deal of interest in audiences.

But it was almost the sequence that never was. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Gracey noted that originall the plan had been to shoot the sequence over a four night period quite early in the film production – unfortunately Gracey had to shut down after learning that Queen Elizabeth, former monach of Great Britain, had died the night of shooting;

‘The plan was to go right from that week of rehearsal into filming the first of four nights on location to keep the moves fresh in his team’s minds. And then! “When we got to the end of the week, a producer came up to me and said, ‘The Queen died last night. We’re not shooting.We got shut down literally the day before we were about to start filming.’

Why Better Man Had to Delay Filming Due to Queen’s Passing

Whilst it probably won’t be clear to some why shooting of the Robbie Williams bio-pic had to be put on pause due to the death of a pensioner on some extreme benefits (I am Welsh, so don’t expect anything but apathy on this subject), there are clear reasons. Unlike some productions like The Crown, which had a more clear-cut reason for stopping filming, Better Man had to stop due to UK law;

‘It’s 10 days of mourning, then they had the funeral, then they had the coronation,” Gracey lists. “It took us another five months to get back onto Regent Street. And just so you know, there’s no insurance for the death of the Queen. We had to go and raise that money again. People on the producing side were like, ‘Well, you don’t really need that number.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, no. We definitely need this number.’

Undoubtedly the sequence made the film what it was, a fantastically received original idea – though unfortunately not the box office success some would have hoped for. That said, Better Man remains in cinemas and can be seen now until it is released on digital sometime late this year.