The festival broke that news on April 4, 2022, while also sharing a never-before-seen image from the production. The still seems to show the King of Rock and Roll (played by AustinButler) alongside his infamous manager. Col. Tom Parker (a.k.a. Oscar winner Tom Hanks in a lot of makeup). “The great storytellers like Shakespeare, they didn’t really do biographies,” Baz Luhrmann, who directed and co-wrote Elvis, saidin a virtual press conference about the movie, per Entertainment Weekly. “They took a life, and they [used] the life as a canvas to explore a larger idea.” While the famed filmmaker has already tried his hand at Shakespeare—having famously directed the 1996 adaptation of Romeo + Juliet—he’s now bringing his signature style to Elvis’ iconic, real-life tale from the early days of rock and roll. The movie is expected to transcend the King himself, however, as Luhrmann called Presley’s story a “great canvas to explore America,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Before the late musical icon’s larger-than-life story comes to life onscreen, here’s everything to know about Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, from all the classic tunes on the soundtrack to the movie’s star-studded cast.
When does Elvis come out?
After years of delays, it seems Elvis will finally get a release fit for a king when it hits theaters on Friday, June 24, 2022.
Is there a trailer for Elvis?
Yes, Warner Bros. released a trailer for the biopic in February 2022. “There are some who’d make me out to be the villain of this here story,” Parker foreshadows at the start of the film’s flashy trailer. The scene then cuts to a childhood Elvis, as a voiceover asks, “Are you born with destiny, or does it just come knocking at your door?” Butler’s Elvis seems to claim his destiny in the next scene, as he goes from shaking with nerves to shaking his hips on-stage with his signature dance moves - and charming the crowd in the process. “In that moment, I watched that skinny boy transform into a superhero,” Hanks narrates. The trailer also sees Elvis growing up in the spotlight, grappling with public criticism and navigating life and stardom after the assassinations of both John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
What is Elvis about?
The movie will reportedly focus on two decades of Presley’s life. “I mean, it’s a mythical life that he lived…. [Presley’s] 42 years is three great lives put into a short period of time,” Luhrmann said, per the Daily Mail. As the trailer indicates, the movie also explores Presley’s relationship with Parker, who negotiated his contract with RCA and had a huge influence on the singer throughout his time in the limelight.
Who plays Elvis Presley in Elvis?
Elvis, er, Austin, is in the building. Butler knows a thing or two about heartthrob status himself, having starred in teen TV shows like The Carrie Diaries and Switched at Birth, in addition to a breakout role in the 2019 Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood. Butler certainly has big (blue suede) shoes to fill in the role. He worked with a vocal coach, in addition to movement coach Polly Bennett (who also coached Rami Malek for the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody) to prepare for the film. “When I began the process, I set out to get my voice to be identical,” Butler said in a press conference, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “That instills fear. So that got the fire burning. For a year before we started shooting, I was doing voice coaching.” Butler wasn’t the only one originally in the running for the big role, however, as Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller and Harry Styles were reportedly also considered in the star-studded search. Luhrmann seems satisfied with the final casting choice, as he told Daily Mail Australia he believes the role will bring Butler a new level of fame. “Austin is going to make himself a superstar, he is phenomenal in the movie,” the director said. “I don’t usually say anything about the performances in my movies but he is phenomenal.”
Is it Austin Butler singing in Elvis?
Like Elvis, Butler is a triple threat. In addition to acting (and mastering the musician’s signature swinging hip moves), Butler sings several of the icon’s early tracks himself. For later tracks, however, his voice is mixed with Presley’s. “We came out with an unusual language, a musical language for the film,” Luhrmann said in the press conference, according to the Daily News. “Austin would sing all the young Elvis, but from about the ’60s on, we would blend it with the real Elvis.”
Is Tom Hanks making a movie about Elvis Presley?
Even before Butler’s casting was confirmed, news surfaced that Hanks would star in the biopic. He takes on the role of Presley’s controversial manager—who, according to Deadline, is rumored to have taken home half of the singer’s earnings. Hanks transformed for the role, speaking in an accent and sporting what appear to be prosthetics. In March 2020, Hanks was working on Elvis in Australia when he and his wife Rita Wilson contracted COVID-19, making them among the first celebrities to publicly reveal a COVID diagnosis. “If there was anything good about it, the very best thing that came out of it was when someone like Tom Hanks got it, I noticed that globally and particularly in America—and we live in New York—suddenly everyone went, this is real,” Luhrmann told Deadline in April 2020.
Who else is in the cast of Elvis?
Hanks and Butler aren’t the only celebrities starring in the musical biopic. Australian actress Olivia DeJonge, a Hollywood newcomer, takes on the role of Elvis’ wife Priscilla Presley. “Olivia is capable of manifesting the complex depth and presence that has made Priscilla Presley an icon in her own right,” Luhrmann previously said in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “She’s an extremely talented young actor and the perfect counterpoint to Austin’s [Butler] Elvis.” The star-studded cast also includes:
Chaydon Jay as preteen Elvis PresleyDacre Montgomery as Steve BinderHelen Thomson as Gladys Presley Richard Roxburgh as Vernon Presley Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe Alton Mason as Little Richard Kelvin Harrison Jr. as B.B. King
When did production begin on Elvis?
Elvis started shooting in early 2020, but the filming and release dates have been pushed back multiple times due to COVID-19. Production first paused after Hanks contracted the virus in March 2020. Luhrmann told Deadline that they were “four days out from shooting” when filming shut down. “I had built the Vegas showroom, the International which became the Hilton, and you know that famous scene where Elvis is playing that showroom?” he said. “We were rehearsing camera positioning, everything, and I’d done all the tests, Austin, Tom, and the whole cast was on fire. We were that close.”
Where was Elvis filmed?
While Presley’s famed Graceland mansion is in Memphis, Elvis was filmed in Luhrmann’s native Australia. “Just when I think I’ve seen or experienced it all, I end up making a film about Elvis by myself on the Gold Coast—and being wowed by it,” the director reportedly told the Australian Financial Review. “It’s energized, enlivened me to find myself at my age back in a place not unlike where I grew up. I really surf change … the energy never scares me. I love to be lifted up by it.”
What is Baz Luhrmann known for?
A prolific, Oscar-nominated director, Luhrmann cemented his signature style with a trio of films referred to as the Red Curtain Trilogy: Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rogue! The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet isn’t the only classic that’s gotten Luhrmann’s splashy, heavily stylized screen treatment, however; His most recent feature film was The Great Gatsby (2013), which starred Leonardo DiCaprio in the titular role. While music often plays a significant role in Luhrmann’s projects, Elvis marks his first biopic. Next, Eat Like The King With These 13 Elvis Presley-Inspired Recipes
