The director of "King of Circus"'s new masterpiece "Better Me" officially announced the introduction of a legendary epic and is about to depart

Following the global phenomenal craze created by "The King of the Circus", director Michael Gracey's new ingenious work "The Better Me" officially announced today that it will be introduced into China and will soon be launched on the national big screen. This annual masterpiece, which won nine awards in the 2025 Australia Academy of Film and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards and was nominated for the Oscar for "Best Visual Effects", uses breakthrough narrative aesthetics and top industrial standards to create an immersive experience that "must be in the theater" for the audience, unlocking a screen feast about self-transcendence.

** From "King of the Circus" to "The Better Me": Gracie breaks the boundaries of commercial films again

As a recognized "audio-visual narrative poet" in the global film industry, Gracie continued his deep insight into the subject matter of music biographies, but reconstructed the characters 'stories from a subversive perspective-"The Better Me" is based on the British pop king Robbie Williams' real experience, abandoning the "hero filter" of traditional biographies, and boldly adopting the "villain perspective" to expose the fragmentation and struggle behind the star's aura. This anti-typology creation is just another breakthrough in Gracie's "song and dance biography" model created by "The King of the Circus": when "The King of the Circus" used gorgeous songs and dances to weave dream hymns,"The Better Me" used the chimpanzee's "anthropomorphic" visual metaphor (dynamic hair capture technology developed by Vita's special effects team over two years), transforming the protagonist's self-game into shocking audio-visual language, and every frame becomes a carrier of emotional resonance.

It is worth noting that Gracie's ultimate pursuit of the big screen experience reaches new heights in the film. In order to present the "one shot to the end" rock carnival on Regent Street, the team went through eight months of preparation and overcome the crisis of suspension, and finally created an immersive one shot to the end-this creative concept of "using technology to serve narrative", which made the film widely praised when it was released overseas.

Oscar-level industrial aesthetics: sensory revolution exclusive to the big screen

The joining of Vita's special effects team (who created "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "Avatar") has made "Better Me" a benchmark for technology-streaming films in 2025. For the first time, the team combined motion capture technology with "biological emotion visualization" and designed 27 hair dynamic patterns for the "avatar" chimpanzees-the arc of neck hair standing upright when angry, and the gloss change of fluff drooping when fragile, all passed through 1200 units. Accurate capture by high-speed cameras presents a pore-level reality on the 4K screen. Some overseas audiences exclaimed after watching the movie in the IMAX hall: "The hair splashing when the chimpanzee shook his head made me forget that it was a special effect. It was as if I saw Robbie himself tearing and rebuilding himself on the stage."

This technological breakthrough serves the core theme of the film-when the protagonist seeks a balance between the spotlight and the separation of his native family, the chimpanzee's morphological changes become an externalized expression of his heart. Producer Coco Xiaolu Ma revealed in an interview during a screening at the Beijing International Film Festival: "I hope the audience will definitely go to the theater to watch. The visual effects of the big screen can be more 'felt'-feel the emotions conveyed by every pore, feel the rock rhythm of the subwoofer vibrating the chest, these are experiences that streaming media cannot replicate."

** Global cooperation * New benchmark: When industrial aesthetics meets the East ** Resonance story **

As a model of global collaborative films,"The Better Me", which China producers and teams deeply participated in the production, is not only a carnival of technology, but also contains a delicate cultural dialogue. The film takes "self-growth" as the main line, and through universal themes such as father-son conflicts, family shackles, and personal growth, convey the message that "Life is not easy, be yourself!" The core of the theme also provides China audiences with a cultural core that can be explored. This creative strategy of "global narrative, local heartbeat" allowed the film to gain a high reputation of "laughing and crying, and every ordinary person can see themselves" when it was screened at the Beijing International Film Festival.

From the dream hymn of "The King of the Circus" to the soul monologue of "The Better Me", Michael Gracie has always believed: "The ultimate meaning of movies is to let the audience see their own growth in other people's stories." Today, this work, which embodies the ingenuity of Chinese and Australian filmmakers, is about to hit the screen of China. A screen journey about "a better self" is waiting for every audience to start in person.

The film "A Better Me" was produced by Bytman Australia Limited, imported by China Film Group Corporation, distributed and translated by China Film Corporation, and promoted by Shanghai Film Corporation. Directed by Michael Gracie, it will soon be officially launched in theaters across the country to meet the audience. Stay tuned!