Baz Luhrmann's surprising new film about Elvis Presley began, the director says, with an accident.
While making 2022's “Elvis,” his Oscar-nominated biopic starring Austin Butler as the King of Rock 'n' Roll and a flamboyantly accented Tom Hanks as Presley's domineering manager, Colonel Tom Parker, Luhrmann's researchers stumbled upon dozens of half-century-old film reels stored in an underground salt mine in Kansas. The footage, which MGM filmed for a pair of Elvis concert films in the early '70s, showed Presley on stage and rehearsing for the residency at the International Hotel in Las Vegas that marked his return to live performances after years of working in Hollywood.
Luhrmann did not end up using the archived “Elvis” material. But the discovery left him a choice, he says: “I had the power and strength to put it back in the vault and let it rot or do something with it.”
What he did with it is “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” which opened last week in IMAX theaters and will expand to wide release on Friday.
Part concert film, part documentary, “EPiC” follows Presley’s journey to the International’s gilded showroom (a concert Luhrmann says only happened because Parker was “a super addicted gambler”) and then to his first tour since the late 1950s. Like all of Lurhmann’s films — including 2013’s “The Great Gatsby” and 2001’s “Moulin Rouge” — it’s an ornate, wildly colored visual spectacle. and frenetic editing (the latter done by Luhrmann's former collaborator Jonathan Redmond).
But the real attraction is Elvis himself: the perfect hair, the dazzling jumpsuit, the dark eyes that shine with pure sex. Given the increasingly bad movies he'd been wasting his talents on, it's a revelation to see how electric he could still be when performing in front of an audience, the force of his charisma sweeping away everything in his blast radius. “EPiC” wisely forgoes talking heads in favor of keeping the camera's gaze on Elvis, although the film is narrated with excerpts from a never-before-heard interview in which Presley discusses his life and career.
As an intimate, immersive cinematic experience, the result is on par with Brett Morgen's mind-blowing 2022 David Bowie documentary “Moonage Daydream” and “Get Back,” the Emmy-winning 2021 Beatles docuseries from Peter Jackson (who lent Luhrmann a hand in restoring MGM footage of “Elvis: That's the Way It Is” and “Elvis on Tour”).
“It's a bit of a dreamscape,” Luhrmann, 63, says of the film while sitting in a suite at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills near the end of a recent press conference. Wearing aviator glasses and an Elvis T-shirt under a velvet jacket, the director has been answering questions about “EPiC” all day; After our talk, he'll head to the TCL Chinese Theater to answer even more at the film's Los Angeles premiere. However, he seems genuinely excited to talk – talk once again – about the King, whom he believes was in something of a bubble when he arrived in Las Vegas in 1969.
“He was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood and felt like he reigned supreme,” Luhrmann says. “He didn't realize the world was passing him by.” While Presley was filming “Tickle Me” and “Clambake,” the Beatles and Bob Dylan had happened; now one of rock 'n' roll's architects risked appearing old-fashioned compared to the countless younger acts he had inspired.
The performances on “EPiC” challenge that idea: Accompanied by the TCB Band and the Sweet Inspirations background singers, Presley’s voice soars through a richly melodramatic “You’ve Lost That Feeling Loving” and then smolders with attitude on a medley of the Beatles’ “Little Sister” and “Get Back”; “Suspicious Minds” leads toward an ecstatic climax, Presley and drummer Ronnie Tutt encouraging each other as the song's beat continues to gain momentum.
As exciting as “EPiC” is, this is roughly the same period of Presley's career covered by last year's “Sunset Boulevard” box set, which included hours of rehearsal tapes from the singer's preparation for the Las Vegas residency. “Sunset Boulevard” followed two recent documentaries about his so-called ’68 comeback special, Sofia Coppola’s film about Presley’s ex-wife, Priscilla, and Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick’s latest book (not to mention Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” which grossed more than $280 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo).
Have you ever felt (almost 49 years after Presley's death at age 42) like there was simply too much Elvis content out there?
“Not for the fans,” says Luhrmann. What's wrong with him? The director says he wouldn't want to comment on that. “There are good things and there are quick imitations,” he says. “I think it's about the quality of things, right?”
In Lurhmann's opinion, what sets “EPiC” apart is that it centers the singer on his own voice. “Elvis stuff is always someone telling you about him,” he says. “The colonel was always trying to stop him from talking.” Here, however, “Elvis comes to you and tells you his story,” he says. “He sings you his story.”
Luhrmann took some creative liberties to achieve a kind of emotional truth. On a funky rendition of “Oh Happy Day,” for example, the director augments Sweet Inspirations’ original backing vocals with the newly recorded vocals of a Nashville gospel choir.
“When Elvis was a kid, he used to sneak into East Trigg [Baptist Church in Memphis] and seeing Mahalia Jackson with a black gospel choir,” Luhrmann says. “So that was a bit of a fantasy. “We are fulfilling Elvis’ dream.”
Baz Luhrmann at the AFI Awards in Los Angeles in 2023.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
That said, the director notes that “there is not a single frame of AI in this movie.” He is not afraid of technology. “AI has its role. But what it does is perfection, and human beings are imperfect,” he says. “When you see Elvis in this movie – the way he moves, his vibes, the fact that no one knew what he was going to do on stage – it's his imperfection that makes him so compelling.”
Part of what has allowed Luhrmann to make important decisions about Presley's legacy is his close relationship with the singer's family, including Priscilla; she and Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie (who tragically died just two days after attending the 2023 Golden Globes in support of Lurhmann's biopic); and Lisa Marie's daughter, Riley Keough.
Still, he denies feeling territorial in any way with the singer. He's heard people joke that, “I'm the Colonel Tom Parker that Elvis should have had,” he says, laughing. “I'm not sure about that. I feel like a curator of the material, but I can't wait to train someone younger and say, 'Go and take this.'”
The thing about icons, he adds, is that their lives and works are infinitely interpretable by any number of heirs. “The thing is, you'll never be able to get rid of it,” he says. “Average artists are forgotten, but iconic artists transcend time and place.”
Who is the closest thing we have to Elvis right now?
Luhrmann smiles. “I'm not going to say who is the closest, but if Taylor [Swift] makes a show, she In fact “Put on a show,” he says. “Harry [Styles] “He's about to come out again and Harry really puts on a show.”
After spending years thinking about Elvis, Luhrmann has mostly moved on to another larger-than-life figure, Joan of Arc, about whom he's making a film for which he's “building medieval France,” as he told Variety this week. (“It’s going to take time,” he added).
However, even now he is not done with the King. Luhrmann says he would like to put “EPiC” at the Las Vegas Sphere, just a mile from where Elvis triumphed at the International. He has even begun pondering how the film could be expanded to fit the venue's enormous wraparound screen, a la Sphere's theme park version of “The Wizard of Oz.”
Says the director: “I don't think there's a screen too big for Elvis.”
