Elvis Presley movie: Colonel Tom Parker star Tom Hanks gives BIG update on upcoming biopic

Back in March, it was announced that Toy Story 4’s Hanks would play Elvis manager Colonel Tom Parker in an upcoming biopic of The King of Rock and Roll. According to Variety, the Elvis movie will be directed by Moulin Rouge’s Baz Luhrmann. And now Hanks has shared an update on music biopic, following the success of Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman. Speaking on Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review, the 62-year-old revealed filming is due to begin in 2020.

Hanks said: “That’s a ways away. That’ll be sometime next year.”

Asked if he knew who will play Elvis, the star added: “I am not in that loop. I am operating solely on what I know of the whole Elvis legend.

“Honestly, all I know is we hope to do it next year. But I’m just in the collecting phase right now.”

Nevertheless, it’s been reported that Luhrmann is looking for a total newcomer to portray Elvis.

Meanwhile, Hanks has been preparing to play Colonel Parker by reading a two-volume biography of Elvis.

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

Hanks said: “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…”

FAN IN LAST FOOTAGE OF ELVIS ‘YOU COULD TELL HE WAS NOT WELL’

Hanks reference there was to Mephistopheles, a demon from German folklore who makes a pact with Faust for his soul on behalf of the devil.

Meanwhile, Elton John biopic Rocketman shot a now deleted scene with Rob Delaney playing Elvis.

The actor said recently: “I did shoot a couple of scenes in the film as a guy named Elvis Presley, who you may have heard of, and they even dyed my hair black for it.

“In the make-up trailer, they said, ‘Do you want the temporary dye or the permanent?’ I was like, ‘temporary please,’ and they put in the permanent by mistake, so it was black for six months after.”