The Latest Trailer for Baz Luhrmann's 'Elvis' Is Here to Get You All Shook Up
The hair, the hips, a whole lotta shakin' and Tom Hanks: they're all part of this Elvis Presley biopic.
Baz Luhrmann is known for many things; however, as everything from Strictly Ballroom to The Great Gatsby has demonstrated, subtlety isn't one of them. When you're making a hip-shakin', gyrating, pompadour-sporting Elvis Presley biopic, though — and that characteristically huge film is your first movie in nine years — that trait isn't called for anyway.
So, when the second trailer for the Australian filmmaker's Elvis calls its namesake a god, it couldn't feel more fitting. Actually, it has Tom Hanks sling that term the king of rock 'n' roll's way to ramp up the sense of importance. "In that moment, Elvis the man was sacrificed — and Elvis the god was born," he narrates, in character as manager Colonel Tom Parker.
That said, Elvis, the film, doesn't look content to just take the Colonel's word for it. Instead, as its just-dropped new sneak peek and original trailer from back in February both show, it's diving into why the world's most famous blue suede shoe aficionado became the icon he did — what made him tick, what influenced him, what he stood for, and how that rippled out into the world and got the planet all shook up. That's a big aim, but again, Luhrmann isn't known to shy away from a challenge.
Set to release Down Under on June 23 — after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, hosting its local debut on the Gold Coast in early June and also having a flashy premiere in Sydney as well — Elvis stars Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Dead Don't Die's Austin Butler as the music legend. And yes, as the footage keeps demonstrating to the requisite soundtrack of Presley's hits, he looks and sounds the part.
Shot in Australia with a cast that also spans a wealth of local talent — Olivia DeJonge (Better Watch Out) as Priscilla, Richard Roxburgh (Fires) as Presley's father Vernon, Oscar-nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog) as singer Jimmie Rodgers, and David Wenham (The Furnace) as country artist Hank Snow, for starters — the film clearly has a big story to tell. Charting the king of rock 'n' roll's rise to fame, exploring the role that manager Colonel Tom Parker played in that success and examining how Presley became the symbol of rock 'n' roll that he still remains now, 45 years after his death, as everything from touring exhibitions to his enduring status in popular culture keep showing: that's all in the movie's remit, too. And, so is examining what that rise, and that ongoing love, says about America and pop culture.
Check out the latest trailer for Elvis below:
Elvis releases in cinemas Down Under on June 23, 2022.
Images: Hugh Stewart.
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