We’re overrun with biopics at the moment, from Elvis Presley to Amy Winehouse – now it’s Marlon Brando’s turn and things are looking promising.
A first look at Billy Zane as the iconic actor in Waltzing With Brando has been shared and the resemblance is uncanny.
In the eerie snaps Billy, 58, poses as Brando in his legendary role of Vito Corleone in The Godfather, for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor.
The Titanic star is unrecognisable from his usual self as he morphs effortlessly into Brando, ‘possessed’ by the late star.
Waltzing With Brando is set to be the closing film at Torino Film Festival, depicting the Julius Caesar actor in his most prolific era covering The Godfather and Last Tango in Paris.
‘You won’t believe it: he is possessed by Marlon Brando,’ Torino’s artistic director Giulio Base told Variety of Billy’s performance.
The biopic, directed by Bill Fishman, is based on a memoir written by Brando’s famed architect Bernard Judge.
Taking a slightly different approach to other biopics, the film is based on the Viva Zapata! star’s discovery of Judge, who he convinced to build the world’s first ecologically perfect retreat on the tiny Tahitian island, Tetiaroa.
Fans on X couldn’t believe how similar the first-look picture was to actual stills of Brando in The Godfather.
‘The hair and makeup team are getting Oscars because WOW,’ praised Ruby Naldrett.
‘You’re telling me that’s NOT an old picture of Marlon Brando????’ asked RensFlower as Illy joked: ‘When yall gonna show Billy Zane?!’
‘JESUS CHRIST 😳…the makeup department went tf OFF! Genuinely thought this was a still from The Godfather.’ Griffin Schiller said.
Keaton added: ‘This is the perfect argument against de-ageing actors or using AI to recreate them. We don’t need it. This looks better.’
‘From what I’ve seen no actor has ever looked even close to this much like the character they were playing what the hell,’ Lala added, referencing the recent biopic influx.
This praise comes after fans slammed the underwhelming transformation by Jeremy Allen White into musician Bruce Springsteen for his biopic.
Similar middling responses have been levied at Timothee Chalamet in his Bob Dylan movie – although his ping pong player film appears to have hit the mark.
Billy is best known for his role as Caledon Hockley in Titanic but recently starred in the acclaimed TV show The Boys as himself for three episodes.
His first acting credit was in Back to the Future, where he played Biff Tannen’s high school friend Match O’Malley, originally unnamed in the film.