Director Baz Luhrmann’s musical biopic Elvis was a beautiful spectacle of a film that covered the life and career of the King of Rock n Roll, Elvis Presley. Austin Butler played Presley in a masterful performance that captured the essence of the soulful and enigmatic musician, and we may be able to see more from him in a new cut of the film.
In a recent interview with IndieWire at the 2022 Gotham Awards, Luhrmann confirmed that there will eventually be a concert cut of the musical biopic:
“It’s a directors’ assembly. It’s not a cut. There’s a whole lot of material that adds up to four hours, but I have gone on record now to say not today, not tomorrow, but at some point I would do [it]. Because Austin did his concerts full out. He did all the numbers. Austin just did it and it was an out of body experience to watch him do those full concerts, so one day I will cut those full concerts together.”
Luhrmann continued, “We just had all the cameras. [Cinematographer] Mandy Walker even got the lenses reproduced from the ’60s and ’70s and ’80s to match exactly everything.”
Butler formerly stated that the concerts were done full-out during production, stating (via The Film Stage) during the film’s premiere:
“The way that we approached every [concert performance] was, for one, Baz and I early on decided that when I was on stage, we weren’t going to have a moment where suddenly we’re talking about acting. So I would come on stage, like in Vegas, do the entire concert, curtain comes down, I walk off. So every time the audience is getting the experience of the show. And if we would cut for any reason, I would entertain the crowd as Elvis. It was the same thing as him having to make jokes to keep everyone entertained.”
This sounds amazing! I hope we do get to see it. I loved Butler in the role of Elvis, and I loved the movie Luhrmann made. I think it would be really cool to see the concert cut. What about you?