Elvis movie: Priscilla Presley's EXCITING update on ‘very stylised’ Baz Luhrmann biopic

Following the success of Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and Elton John’s Rocketman, Elvis is getting the movie treatment. Moulin Rogue! director Baz Luhrmann is helming the movie which will star Austin Butler as The King. And now Elvis’ wife Priscilla Presley and Memphis Mafia member Jerry Schilling have given an update.

The duo have been in the UK for Elvis In Concert: The Greatest Hits Tour, which concluded at The O2 Arena in London last Sunday.

And while promoting the shows on Smooth Radio last week, Priscilla revealed how she’s met with Baz and given him some feedback on the movie.

The 74-year-old, who had a three-hour lunch with the director, said: “I’m involved as much as Baz will let me be involved because he’s learning as he’s going along.

“I had Jerry come to my house and visit with Baz.”

elvis wedding and priscilla now

Elvis movie: Priscilla Presley give EXCITING update on ‘very stylised’ Baz Luhrmann biopic (Image: GETTY)

baz, olivia and austin

Elvis movie director Baz Luhrmann with Priscilla and Elvis stars Olivia DeJonge and Austin Butler (Image: GETTY)

Priscilla continued: “We had lunch, and Baz told us both what he had in mind.

“Now, mind you, this is Baz Luhrmann. It’s going to be very stylised. I mean, this is not going to be just a regular film.

“Yeah. I met him in Memphis. He brought Austin over, who is playing Elvis, to meet me.

“I am meeting with Austin soon, back in LA. He is sending me the script when they finish up the little details. So he has me pretty much involved.”

jerry and priscilla

Priscilla Presley and Jerry Schilling today (Image: GETTY)

Elvis’ wife also confirmed her hopes of being in the biopic.

She said: “I don’t know. I will be in it, of course, but I have no idea yet because I haven’t seen the script yet.

“He’s not quite finished. This is going to be out in 2021. So there’s a lot of changes in the script.

“They’re really working diligently to make it right, or to make it about what Baz is looking for. So I’ll be seeing that soon, but I think there’ll be a lot of changes.”

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Meanwhile, Jerry added: “I think he certainly asked all the right questions, as I will tell you – I mean, especially about the Colonel.

“Because that’s going to be very interesting with Tom Hanks because Priscilla and I knew the Colonel.

“He’s the easy-to-go-to bad guy. But he was actually quite a special guy. A good human being. There might have been differences, but they were creative.

“But Colonel Parker is, I think, the most undeveloped personality in rock-and-roll history, and the most interesting. He’s like the PT Barnum of rock-and-roll.”

Earlier this year, Tom Hanks revealed he’s been preparing to play the manager by reading a two-volume biography of Elvis.

Specifically Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to Memphis and its second volume Careless Love.

Hanks told Mark Kermode: “I’ve read both of those and… Let me just go back a little bit, my make-up man, Danny Striepeke – who did my make-up, for I think, 17 films – had done Elvis on, among others, Viva Las Vegas… and Harum Sacrum and Kissing’ Cousins. So he had made some really lousy Elvis movies. He told me stories about both Elvis and also Colonel Parker. So I was a little bit hip to what that union was… that odd kinda like…Mephistophelian bargain…”

The untitled Elvis Presley biopic will be released on October 1, 2021.

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