The Elvis Presley biopic stars Austin Butler as the rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley. It will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The festival is going to take place from May 17 to May 28. No specific date is out yet, but the film is locked in for a Palais bow, sources said. Tom Hanks will play Tom Parker in the film. Parker was the one who discovered Elvis and made him into a worldwide celebrity, now an icon.
Following the premiere at Cannes, the film will be released in theatres on June 24. Directed by Moulin Rouge’s Baz Luhrmann, the film chronicles the star’s meteoric ascent to popularity and cultural impact in the United States. Luhrmann, 59, claimed he was inspired to make a film on Presley due to the “musical icons in my life that were so important to me”. This is Luhrmann’s first movie since 2013’s The Great Gatsby.
Big shoes to fill
“I was an Elvis fan but I don’t know that that fan-hood was in any way the reason I wanted to do Elvis,” he said. “But the truth is that in this modern era, the life of Elvis couldn’t be a better canvas to explore America in the 50s and 60s. That’s what drew me in, that and a guy named Col. Tom Parker.”
Butler also discussed why he wanted to play Elvis Presley. He said that “fundamentally getting to explore the humanity of somebody who has become the wallpaper of society in a way” was what drew him in.
“He’s such an icon and held to superhuman status,” Butler explained. “To get to explore that for years and learn why he was the way that he was; it was such a joy that I could do that for the rest of my life probably.”
“[It’s] huge shoes to fill,” he said of his singing. “I think when I began the process of this I set out to get my voice to sound identical to his. I held that for a long time and what that does is it also instills fear; that I’m not going to achieve that or whatever. That got the fire inside of me burning to work and work and work.”