Tom Hanks only understood the magnitude of what he took on when he saw Austin Butler in full Elvis Presley garbs.
25.05.2022 - 22:41 / variety.com
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticElvis Presley, with the exception of the Beatles, is the most mythological figure in the history of popular music. That makes him a singularly tempting figure to build a biopic around.
But it also makes telling his story a unique challenge. Everything about Elvis (the rise, the fall, all that came in between) is so deeply etched in our imaginations that when you make a dramatic feature film out of Elvis Presley’s life, you’re not just channeling the mythology — you’re competing with it.
The challenge is: What can you bring to the table that’s headier and more awesome than the real thing?Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” is a fizzy, delirious, impishly energized, compulsively watchable 2-hour-and-39-minute fever dream — a spangly pinwheel of a movie that converts the Elvis saga we all carry around in our heads into a lavishly staged biopic-as-pop-opera. Luhrmann, who made that masterpiece of romantically downbeat razzle-dazzle “Moulin Rouge!” (and in 20 years has never come close to matching it), isn’t interested in directing a conventional biography of Elvis.
And who would want him to? Lurhmann shoots the works, leaping from high point to high point, trimming away anything too prosaic (Elvis’s entire decade of churning out bland Hollywood musicals flashes by in an eye-blink). He taps into the Elvis of our reveries, searing us with the king’s showbiz heat and spinning his music — and how it was rooted in the genius of Black musical forms — like a mix-master across time.
Tom Hanks only understood the magnitude of what he took on when he saw Austin Butler in full Elvis Presley garbs.
Austin Butler poses with Olivia DeJonge at the SiriusXM Town Hall event for their film Elvis at Soundstage at Graceland on Monday (June 13) in Memphis, Tennessee.
Harry Styles in a new interview, saying the singer “embodies so much of Elvis”.The director’s biopic about the king of rock’n’roll will be released in cinemas in the UK on June 24 and is simply called Elvis.Speaking to The Times about the new movie – which stars Austin Butler in the titular role – Luhrmann observed that Elvis had “incredible style”. “Before people talked about [gender] fluidity, he had knitted bolero tank tops with his midriff hanging out, truck driver sideburns, make-up and dyed black hair,” he said. “He wore what would have been called, in the 19th century, dandy clothes.”When Styles was mentioned to him as the modern version of that, the filmmaker replied: “I know Harry well.
Harry Styles and Elvis Presley are both pop-culture sensations who crossed over to movies after wildly successful music careers. But for “Elvis” director Baz Luhrmann, their status as generational icons made Styles a poor choice to play The King in his new biopic.
Austin Butler had more than a few nerves when it came time to take on the role of Elvis Presley in the upcoming Baz Luhrmann-directed biopic. «I was nervous and afraid of the big numbers with tons of extras, to go out there and perform in front of a lot of people,» Butler admits in behind-the-scenes footage from, which hits theaters on June 24. «I was filled with terror at that idea.»Smartly, Butler consulted a peer about his nerves: Rami Malek, who won an Academy Award in 2019 for his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in .«He said, 'You know what? Those days will probably end up becoming your favorite days,'» Butler remembers, sharing Malek's hindsight from his role. «He could not be more right about that… I was terrified every time before going out there… But Elvis said it as well.
Austin Butler and Olivia DeJonge strike a pose at the premiere of their new film Elvis at the Event Cinemas Pacific Fair in Gold Coast, Australia on Saturday (June 4).
Elvis Presley died 45 years ago, longer than he was on this planet and has now finally been given the cinematic biopic treatment. There's been a couple of TV attempts over the years with the likes of Kurt Russell donning the jumpsuit, but in an age of Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman storming the big screen, it was only a matter of time before The King would follow. Now if only Baz Luhrmann's Elvis movie was as great as those.
Austin Butler and Tom Hanks suit up sharp for the premiere of their new film, Elvis, held at BFI Southbank on Tuesday night (May 31) in London, England.
Tom Hanks transform into Geppetto for his latest role in the live-action Pinocchio film.On Tuesday, May 31, Disney released the official teaser trailer for the film, which is set to release later this year. In the nearly two-minute long clip, the 65-year-old transforms into the famous woodcarver with gray hair, a mustache, and small-framed glasses.
Tom Hanks led the stars at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in France. The Oscar-winning actor takes on the role of the Kings manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in "Elvis." During the film festival, Hanks posed for pictures alongside Elvis Presley's ex-wife Priscilla Presley. The 65-year-old actor was joined by Disney star Austin Butler, who takes on the Elvis role in the unreleased film.
upcoming biopic “Elvis.”The 65-year-old Oscar winner discussed why he decided to portray him — and how director Baz Luhrmann convinced him to do so — at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday.“I’m not interested in playing a bad guy just for the sake of, ‘Before I kill you, Mr. Bond, perhaps you’d like a tour of my installations.’ That’s OK, I get it, but that’s for other stuff,” the “Forrest Gump” actor noted via People.Hanks donned prosthetics and hefty cosmetics to become the real-life legend, though he confessed at the French film fest that he “did not know what Colonel Tom Parker looked like.”He added that Luhrmann described the Colonel as a “great carney,” or carnival worker.“The carney’s job is to bring people to the glittering lights on the outside of town, promise them something they’ve never experienced before, and then, almost giving it to them, at a cost,” he said.
The stars of the new movie Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann, stepped out for a press conference and photo call at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
“fizzy, delirious, impishly energized, compulsively watchable” — reviews have been mixed with one critic all shook up.IndieWire writer David Ehrlich published his review of the Austin Butler and Tom Hanks-led film Wednesday and trash-talked the flick, calling it a “nightmare” as well as “deliriously awful.”The journalist dove right into “Elvis” — out June 24 — writing that the “159-minute eyesore” is more about Hanks’ Colonel Tom Parker, the longtime manager of the “Love Me Tender” star, and less about Butler’s Elvis.He gave “Elvis” a grade of “D.”IndieWire described the Oscar winner’s character as the “Kentucky Fried Goldmember” and is “possibly the most insufferable movie character ever conceived.” The Hollywood Reporter seemed to agree, dubbing the “Forrest Gump” actor’s role as “arguably the least appealing performance of his career.”But for IndieWire’s Ehrlich, the problem seemed to lie in the pudding: the writing.“Luhrmann’s dizzying script (co-written by Sam Bromell, Jeremy Doner and Craig Pearce) frequently returns to the idea that Presley’s life was caught in the crossfire between two different Americas: One gyrating towards freedom, and the other snuffing it out,” he penned in his review.The critic also compares scenes in “Elvis” to Luhrmann’s other “sensory overload” and “swooningly electric moments” such as the fish tank sequence in his 1996 romance “Romeo + Juliet” and the wild party scene in 2013’s “The Great Gatsby.” “The hyper-romantic energy of those films helped braid the present into the past in a way that made them both feel more alive,” he wrote. “’Elvis’ discovers no such purpose.
CANNES – Following its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival the reviews for Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” are in. So far most critics have raved about Austin Butler’s performance as the King of Rock and Roll and complicated Luhrmann’s staging of the movie’s musical performances.
There’s really no overstating the sociocultural impact of Elvis Aaron Presley, whose music and celebrity cleaved the twentieth century in half as an Ozymandias colossus foretelling the future of fame: merchandising, overexposure, descent into self-parody. That’s all in Baz Luhrmann’s new biopic “Elvis,” though mostly because he’s jammed everything he possibly can into its million-millennia run time.
Tom Hanks looked as dapper as ever with Priscilla Presley on his arm at the star-studded Cannes premiere of Baz Luhrmann’s highly-anticipated Elvis biopic. The film, which is out in June, stars Austin Butler as the king of rock ‘n’ roll, which follows Presley’s rise to fame. Tom, who plays Presley’s enigmatic manager Colonel Tom Parker, was seen on the red carpet at the 75th Cannes Film Festival with Presley’s ex-wife by his side.