The king of Rock and Roll is back
By: Valerie Reyes
Staff Writer
Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis”, starring Austin Butler as Elvis, and Tom Hanks as Elvis’s manager Colonel Tom Parker. The musical biopic explores the life and music of Elvis Presley and his complicated relationship with manager Colonel Tom Parker.
Scenes of the trailer gives us a glimpse into Elvis at a young age back in Tupelo, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. We see how Presley was inspired by music in the Black community at a young age, a teenage Elvis nervously performing for a crowd, his relationship with the Black community during the civil rights movement, and his relationship with Priscilla Presley. As expected, we see some of Elvis’s iconic looks and hear snippets of “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and “Suspicious Minds.”
Austin Butler was cast over Harry Styles, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. In the Warner Bros. news release director Baz Luhrmann says he knew “unequivocally that I had found someone who could embody the spirit of one of the world’s most iconic musical figures.” Preparing to bring Elvis to life, Butler had voice coaching, read and watched everything Elvis, and overall studied Elvis to embody the King. Austin Butler has some big shoes to fill and a lot of Elvis fans to please. According to nypost.com “not everyone had burning love for Butler portraying Presley. On Twitter, some were confused over the casting choice while others slammed Butler for not looking like he embodied the role.” Die hard fans of Elvis may have mixed feelings about Austin Butler, but Butler seems more than prepared to become Elvis.
The film will also star Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla Presley, Dacre Montgomery, Luke Bracey, Yola, Helen Thompson, Richard Roxburgh, Natasha Bassett, David Wenham, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Kodi Smit-McPhee, Leon Ford, Xavier Samuel, Adam Dunn, Kate Mulvany, Gareth Davies, Gary Clark Jr., Charles Grounds, Josh McConville, Elizabeth Cullen, Milina Vidler and Christopher Sommers.
Production began in Australia in 2020 but stopped due to Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson tested positive for COVID-19 and went back into production later in the year. Like many other movies, the release date had been moved around due to the pandemic from October 2021 until summer 2022.
“Elvis”is scheduled to be released in the United States on June 24, 2022.