Tag: Elvis Presley

Check Out The New Poster And IMAX Trailer For Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert

One of the profound memories of my childhood is of my parents picking my sister and I up from summer sleepaway camp in August of 1977. My mother was crying. Not because she was happy to see us after 2 weeks, but because she had just heard on the car radio that Elvis Presley had died. Elvis meant so much to so many people – not only the baby-boom generation (my parents), but also their kids, the Gen-Xers. Even if you didn’t know all of Elvis’s catalog of songs, you knew who he was and why he was dubbed “The King.”

In EPiC: ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT, director Baz Luhrmann takes us back, to remind us why Elvis was and is rock and roll royalty and the ultimate pop-culture touchstone.

From director Baz Luhrmann:

During the making of Elvis (2022), we went on a search for rumored unseen footage from the iconic1970s concert films Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour that had reportedly been lost.

Throughout this incredibly detailed process, one of the great finds has been unheard recordings of Elvis talking about his life and his music: from the 1970 Vegas show, on tour in 1972 and even precious moments of the 1957 “goldjacket” performance in Hawaii. I knew that we could not pass up this opportunity. It was these discoveries that gave the inspiration for the new film.

What if, instead of reduxing the previous works, we made a film that wasn’t a documentary and wasn’t a concert film? What if Elvis came to you in a dreamscape, almost like a cinematic poem, and sang to you and told you his story in a way in which you haven’t experienced before?

We asked the what ifs and answered them in what we are about to present at Toronto International Film Festivals’s 50th Edition- EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, Elvis sings and tells his story like never before. Elvis takes the audience through the journey of his life, through both classic and contemporary musical prisms, weaving unseen footage with iconic performances that have never been presented in this.

EPiC Elvis takes the audience through the journey of his life, through both classic and contemporary musical prisms, weaving unseen footage with iconic performances that have never been presented in this way. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is a leap of the musical imagination and a tribute to one of the greatest performers of all time.

EPiC: ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT plays one week IMAX EXCLUSIVE Starting February 20 and in cinemas worldwide February 27.

PRISCILLA – Review

Woo boy, here’s a new flick that’ll make the multiplex shake, rattle, and roll (well, the screens that aren’t still running the Taylor Swift concert juggernaut). Yes, it’s a brand-spankin’ new biopic centered around the king of rock and roll, the ruler of Graceland, the ….whoa, wait a minute! This is 2023, not 2022, Last Christmas we got a big-budget musical docudrama all about the man who was always “takin’ care of business” from Baz Luhrmann. Yes, and this is quite a different spin. For one thing, it’s from an indie studio with a more modest budget. There is a highly regarded director behind this, but rather than focusing on “E” or “the Colonel” it follows the path of the “Queen of the King”. As the title implies, this is the story of PRISCILLA.

This look at her life with EP begins after he’s gone into the Army and is stationed over in Germany. In the military diner, we first encounter the 14-year-old “Army brat” Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) as she enjoys a milkshake at the counter, She’s approached by another high-ranking soldier, the entertainment co-ordinator of the base, who invites her to a party being held for their most famous recruit. After much pleading with her parents and a visit from that officer, she’s allowed to attend. There she is naturally dazzled by the charismatic Private Presley (Jacob Elordi). Soon he escorts her away from the other partygoers for a private “chitchat”. He’s smitten as Priscilla seems to be more of a regular “downhome” gal, briefly kissing her before she is driven back home. Soon, they begin a secret courtship, always with escorts, causing her to daydream of a future with him while distracted at school. Priscilla is heartbroken when Elvis finishes his “stint” and flies back home to restart his career in music and the movies. The two continue to communicate via letters and phone calls, as he insists that all the fan magazine romance stories with his co-stars are lies. Ann Elvis does come back to her and asks her parents to sign an agreement making her the ward of his Papa Vernon and promising that she will finish her education in Memphis while living in her own room at his estate Graceland. There it’s all-day parties with EP and his “Memphis mafia” and long lonely days when he’s off at a movie set. The romance has its ups and downs as Elvis molds her (makeup and fashions) into his “ideal woman” before marrying her. Years pass, they have a daughter Lisa Marie, and their mutual dependence on pills and booze begins to take its toll. Priscilla’s fantasy of her perfect life with her dream man starts to crash and crumble.

Anchoring the love story at the film center is the title role performance by a most compelling young actress. Though she’s had several supporting roles in TV and the movies. Ms. Spaeny gives Priscilla a real arc as she begins to mature from a pre-teen to a strong-willed young mother. In the beginning of the relationship, Spaeny conveys the all-consuming awakening of first love, drifting as though on a cloud, apart from the mere mortal teenagers in her school hallway. Soon we see her deal with the pangs of jealousy, working up the courage to confront her famous beau. Spaeny makes it seem as though Priscilla is passive as her look is formed, but her eyes tell us that she knows that something is very “off”. Over time she shows us how Mrs. P strived to break out of her hubby’s long shadow. Elordi plays him with loads of genteel Southern charm (perhaps it was the sound system, but I lost lots of words due to that strong drawl), especially as the chaste, respectful suitor. Later he reveals his manipulative darker side with the dress shop scene invoking Scotty’s “makeover mania” from VERTIGO. Then the fame and the drugs seem to seal him off emotionally, as Elordi makes E more distracted and secretive, exploding in quick scary outbursts followed by pleading apologies. In much smaller roles (mainly in the first act) Dagma Dominczyk and Art Cohen are effective as the wary parents of Ms. P, while Tim Post is a grumpy Vernon, always looking out for his “boy”.

Directing this new look at the music icon through the eyes of his first true love is Sofia Coppola who also wrote the adaptation of Priscilla’s memoir “Elvis and Me” that she penned with Sandra Harmon. And though it may have followed that tome very closely, the pacing is dragged down by the near-endless scenes of Presley playing with his posse while his wife sulks, then dealing with her loneliness as he leaves for a concert or a film, then starting the cycle again (yes, I’m sure that’s much like her life then but it becomes so tiring). The sets evoke the locales and the costumes and hairstyles give the film a real nostalgic authenticity. But after the stylish splash and “eye candy’ of last winter’s spectacle, it all feels somber and “scaled down” with the feel of a TV movie. However, the biggest absence is the King’s music itself. There are a few fleeting chords of classics, but the estate wouldn’t okay their use. Yes, there are a few songs, but on the first “date”, Elvis regales the partygoers with a hit from another 50s icon. That may turn off his ardent fans along with eschewing the sweetness of Baz’s take to this “groomer” of a child ten years his junior (accentuated by the height difference between the two leads). Also, the film ends too abruptly with no postscript to the lead’s life post-Memphis. Ms. Spaeny and Mr. Elordi are very good, but they can’t quite inject a spark into the whirlwind romance of Elvis and PRISCILLA.

2.5 Out of 4

PRISCILLA is now playing in select theatres

Celebrate The King’s Birthday on January 8th With A Free Screening Of ELVIS Starring Austin Butler

To mark Elvis Presley’s birthday on January 8, 2023, Warner Bros. Pictures is collaborating with Presley’s beloved estate, Graceland, to offer fans in Memphis and beyond the opportunity to celebrate the one-of-a-kind icon.

Leading up to and including the January 8 birthday, Graceland kicks off the celebration with a wide variety of festivities on the property:

  • 1/5/23 – Elvis Movie Marathon and Club Elvis Hawaiian Style dinner, dancing, and “Blue Hawaii”
  • 1/6/23 – Graceland Excursion to Tupelo; Archives Show & Tell; annual Elvis Birthday Pops Concert with Terry Mike Jeffrey and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra
  • 1/7/23 – Conversations with Elvis with host Tom Brown, guests Hal Lansky, Glen Hardin and Alton Mason, who portrays Little Richard in the film; Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii 50th Anniversary Concert
  • 1/8/23 – Elvis Birthday Proclamation Ceremony, with free online viewing via Graceland’s Livestream page; Lisa Marie Presley, along with special guest Alton Mason, will join the ceremony taking place on the front lawn of the mansion at 8:30 a.m.
  • 1/8/23 – The unveiling of “The Making of ELVIS” at Elvis Presley’s Memphis, a new exhibition celebrating the movie’s worldwide success, done in partnership with Warner Bros., National Film and Sound Archives of Australia and Baz Luhrmann, which explores the beginning of the film’s creative process through its journey to the big screen; Alton Mason will also be on site for the opening
  • 1/9/23 – Beginning on the 9th and running through the end of February, Graceland will offer new, limited-time ELVIS Movie Ultimate VIP (UVIP) Tours. Guests will enjoy a special tour experience of Elvis Presley’s Memphis and Graceland Mansion with a private tour guide that will feature insight into the extensive research done by Baz Luhrmann while at Graceland, along with the stories of the real-life artifacts replicated in the movie. Additional dates to be announced; for more information on ELVIS Movie UVIP Tours visit Graceland

Throughout the weekend, fans in town can experience Afternoon Graceland Christmas Tours and Evening UVIP Christmas Tours. Information on all events can be found at Graceland.com.

Also on January 8, fans in 10 cities across the U.S. and Canada will have the chance to see Baz Luhrmann’s celebrated film ELVIS in select theaters for free, courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, with an introduction from Luhrmann and star Austin Butler.

Tickets will be available at no cost to moviegoers on a first come, first served basis here, for the following locations:

Atlanta, GA:   AMC Phipps Plaza
Chicago, IL:   AMC River East 21
Dallas, TX:   AMC NorthPark 15
Kansas City, KS:   AMC Town Center 20, Leawood
Los Angeles, CA:   AMC Burbank
New York, NY:   AMC Loews 34th Street
San Francisco, CA:   AMC Metreon
Toronto, ONT:   Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre Toronto
Vancouver, BC:   Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas

All above screenings will take place at 5:00 PM local time except Los Angeles, which begins at 4:00 PM PST.

Memphis, home to Presley’s beloved Graceland, will also host an afternoon screening at 2:00 p.m. in the estate’s Guest House Theater for fans in town for Elvis’s Birthday Celebration. Tickets will be available here.

Luhrmann said, “We are so appreciative of the audiences of all ages who came out to see the movie in theaters, and to Warner Bros. and exhibitors who took on what was certainly not a sure bet. A big thank you to audiences who made ELVIS the number one original title of 2022, and especially to Elvis’s fans—both old and new. The entire ELVIS team, along with Graceland and the Presleys themselves, have been listening to you all and working diligently to come up with these very special gifts in celebration of Elvis on his birthday.”

“No one was more appreciative of his fans than Elvis, as evidenced by the pilgrimage so many make to Graceland every year,” stated Joel Weinshanker, managing partner and majority owner, Elvis Presley Enterprises. “That’s why we are especially thrilled to partner with Warner Bros. on the occasion of Elvis Presley’s birthday, to add to our robust lineup for fans the gift of Baz Luhrmann’s incomparable film ELVIS—whether they are seeing it for the first time or, as we suspect, able to repeat the big screen experience they’ve undoubtedly been hoping for.”

In addition to the in-person activities, fans of the King and the film can also celebrate from their very own home:

  • Watch ELVIS on HBO and HBO Max, currently available
  • Next, discover “Just A Boy from Tupelo: Bringing Elvis to the Big Screen,” a 30-minute special on the phenomenon that was Elvis Presley and the making of Baz Luhrmann’s film, streaming exclusively beginning 1/8/23 on HBO Max
  • SiriusXM to rebroadcast ELVIS Cast Town Hall on 1/6/23 through 1/8/23 with Baz Luhrmann, Austin Butler, Tom Hanks and Olivia DeJonge on Elvis Radio (ch. 75), moderated by SiriusXM host Jess Cagle
  • RCA Records will drop the never-before-released full-length mash-up track from ELVIS: Britney Spears x Elvis Presley “Toxic Las Vegas: Jamieson Shaw Remix” on 1/6/23

Finally, can you move like Elvis? Beginning today and through the weekend celebrations, take the #ElvisBirthdayChallenge across TikTok and Instagram, where we are encouraging fans to recreate some of Presley’s iconic dance moves as replicated by Austin Butler in #ElvisMovie. Recreate your favorite movement moments from the movie, we’ll highlight some of the best entries on Sunday, 1/8/23!

Director-producer-cowriter Baz Luhrmann takes us on the moving journey of a rebel and an icon as America’s cultural landscape evolved over more than 30 years. Starring Austin Butler, ELVIS celebrates the extraordinary life of a trailblazing artist, the loves and poignant losses he faced as a man and the timeless music and groundbreaking performances he gave the world. The film explores how Presley’s unprecedented rise to fame was sparked by larger-than-life manager Colonel Tom Parker, portrayed by Oscar winner Tom Hanks, whose shortcomings were also primarily responsible for the singer’s tragic demise.

The film also stars award-winning theater actress Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, Olivia DeJonge, Luke Bracey, Natasha Bassett, David Wenham, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Xavier Samuel, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Dacre Montgomery and more. To play additional iconic musical artists in the film, Luhrmann cast singer/songwriter Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, model Alton Mason as Little Richard, Austin, Texas native Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur Crudup, and artist Shonka Dukureh as Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton.

Oscar nominee Luhrmann directed from a screenplay by Baz Luhrmann & Sam Bromell and Baz Luhrmann & Craig Pearce and Jeremy Doner, story by Baz Luhrmann and Jeremy Doner. The film’s producers are Luhrmann, Oscar winner Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss. Toby Emmerich, Courtenay Valenti and Kevin McCormick executive produced.

The director’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Mandy Walker, Oscar-winning production designer and costume designer Catherine Martin, production designer Karen Murphy, editors Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond, Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor Thomas Wood, music supervisor Anton Monsted and composer/executive music producer Elliott Wheeler.

Principal photography on ELVIS took place in Queensland, Australia with the support of the Queensland Government, Screen Queensland and the Australian Government’s Producer Offset program.

A Warner Bros. Pictures Presentation, A Bazmark Production, A Jackal Group Production, A Baz Luhrmann Film, ELVIS is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

ELVIS – Review

AUSTIN BUTLER as Elvis in Warner Bros. Pictures’ drama “ELVIS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2022 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In a rhinestone-studded, cinematic extravaganza, director Baz Luhrmann gives Elvis Presley his signature dazzle treatment in an energetic epic tale about Elvis but told through the eyes of his scheming manager Colonel Tom Parker. Parker is played by a winking, sinister Tom Hanks in a riveting performance. By rights, the film really should be called “Elvis and the Colonel” or maybe the reverse, as Tom Hanks’ Parker is a dominate presence, serving as our master of ceremonies and narrating events from his point-of-view. Elvis is played winningly by Austin Butler, who not only looks like Elvis but sings some of his early hits while performing with hip-swiveling verve.

Luhrmann’s ELVIS is less a straight-forward admiring biopic than a magical fairy-tale built around the complicated relationship between the singer and his shady manager. The young Elvis makes a deal with the slick Parker that is a double-edged sword, bringing fame along with a Faustian bargain.

This drama may not be what Elvis fans expect but it is a colorful, entertaining film that casts the two central figures in Presley’s life as forces of light and dark. Such a good-versus-evil lens almost requires a less than completely truthful approach to the facts, and indeed ELVIS is no documentary. Instead it is a lightning-in-a-bottle kind of film, but one which does not require a viewer to be an Elvis fan, only be interested in the magic of stardom and star-making. For those of us who are more Baz Luhrmann fans than Elvis fans, as is the case for this author, ELVIS delivers on big entertainment. Luhrmann is noted for colorful, energetic, imaginative films like MOULIN ROUGE and THE GREAT GATSBY, and this one fits neatly in that category. His films are not to everyone’s taste but they do deliver color-drenched, visually-electrifying cinematic experiences.

Tom Hanks’ Parker claims to be the man who gave the world Elvis, in an opening scene. Luhrmann’s choice to focus on the complex relationship between the manager and the singer makes the film more interesting and compelling than a simple biopic. Tom Parker was no colonel, merely adopting a courtesy title common in Old Southern tradition, and his real name was not Parker either. What he was was a con man straight out of carny life, something the character admits in early on in voice-over. He was a man with a murky, secretive past who may have been born in Holland, but someone always on the hunt for talent to promote and from which to profit.

Elvis, played by Austin Butler (could there be a more perfect Southern moniker?), fit the bill when Col. Parker (Hanks) spots the young ambitious singer while touring with squeaky-clean country musician Hank Snow (David Wenham) and his musician wannabee son Jimmie Rodgers Snow (Kodi Smit-McPhee).When Parker sees Elvis perform and his audience go wild, Parker recognizes Elvis Presley is just what radio stations in the racially-segregated 1950s were salivating for: a white man who could sing Black music and perform it with that same wild energy. Parker knows he has found gold.

ELVIS is filled with Luhrmann razzle-dazzle and beautiful over-the-top delights, with Col. Parker coming across as a carnival barker luring us in. But it also is clear that Luhrmann is an Elvis fan, and his Elvis, played with smoldering charm by handsome Austin Butler. is like a force of nature, singing with irresistible force while wiggling and gyrating sexily across stage. “Elvis the Pelvis” was something that hit female audiences like a thunderbolt in the sexually-repressive ’50s, and the film captures that magic with bravura. Tom Hanks’ Col. Parker styles himself as the puppet master but the singer’s connection to his audience makes it clear he just hitched his wagon to that thunderbolt, a popular culture phenomenon that had mid-century America all shook up – uh-huh.

Most are familiar with Elvis’s complicated, exploitative relationship with Parker but Luhrmann and Tom Hanks squeeze every drop of drama from that, while still covering the outlines of Presley’s life. Luhrmann goes with that Faustian theme, giving Parker a carny sideshow, con man aspect that the film’s Parker himself embraces, which gives the drama a glittery surface with a dark undercurrent.

Elvis is played by Austin Butler with convincing sincerity and hip-swiveling skill. Butler plays young Elvis as a sort of innocent drawn into the Colonel’s seductive, slippery carnival world with promises of fame and riches. But his Elvis also has boundless ambition and a rebel streak that makes him chafe at the Colonel’s efforts to sanitize his image.

The film has a surprising honesty about Presley’s debt, musically and in performance style, to Black musicians, with bits featuring Little Richard (Alton Mason), B.B. King (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and other greats. It is something the real Elvis himself acknowledged but is too often seems downplayed in adoring bios, in favor of focusing instead on his roots in gospel (again, shared by many Black musicians). Luhrmann is careful to correct some of that, although it does over-correct a bit with barely a nod to Black churches and only a little on Elvis’ love of gospel music. Presley grew up poor in the South, surrounded by Black musicians and their music, so it is natural that would be the music he played, gospel and blues along with country and early rock. He just happened to be white, and therefore acceptable to the music business of the racist, segregated 1950s. Elliott Wheeler and Anton Monsted’s musical score brings in more of Black voices, both Elvis’s contemporaries in enjoyable film segments and current Black artists in the sound track.

There is less honesty about Elvis’s other aspects of his career and life. His relationship with his wife Priscilla is depicted in glowing terms, with the film baldly failing to note her age – fourteen – when the 24-year-old Presley first met her. It works for Luhrmann’s purposes to sanitize Elvis a bit to increase the contrast with Parker, but a little more truth about Elvis’s well-known shortcomings might have been more convincing. The film also skips the singer’s strange meeting with Richard Nixon and glosses over how the pop music cultural earthquake caused by the Beatles and the British Invasion changed the direction of rock music and sent Elvis over to country music radio stations, something that sparked an Elvis-versus-Beatles pop music fan divide that persisted for years. Instead, ELVIS steers away from those negatives, personal and professional, to present Elvis in a more positive light, in better contrast with the sinister Col. Parker.

And sinister is the right word for the film’s exploitative Parker, something that Tom Hanks gleefully leans into. Tom Hanks gives a gripping, award-worthy performance as Col. Parker, a slick character who has a mysterious past. Tom Hanks’ Parker openly talks to the audience about being a con man but he is less forthcoming about his own past and even country of origin. That good-and evil contrast between Parker and Presley means the film also leans into the melodrama, although Luhrmann makes that work for the film’s entertainment value. And this film is highly entertaining, as long as one goes along with what it is and doesn’t expect it to be what it is not.

Austin Butler does his own singing as the young Presley and delivers a moving, smoldering performance as the ambitious young singer, struggling against restraints that Parker imposes. In the later Vegas years, Butler gives a very convincing stage performance, although it is mostly Presley’s voice we hear and Butler never does say “thank you, thank you very much.” This may be a star-making role for Butler, who has only been seen in a few supporting roles prior to this.

As you would expect from Luhrmann, the film is visually dazzling, full of color and movement, like a candy-colored carnival ride, which is very fitting for the subject. ELVIS was filmed, not in Memphis, but in Luhrmann’s native Australia, with the director carefully recreating important locations from Presley’s life. With its focus on the relationship between Elvis and the Colonel, it spends less time on Elvis’ childhood but does present his close relationship with his beloved mother Gladys (Helen Thomson) and less close relationship with his ineffective father Vernon (Richard Roxburgh), as well as Parker’s exploitation of Presley’s warm feelings about family. Yet everything is presented in a glowing, neon light, the good and the bad.

Once the film gets to the Elvis movies and the Vegas era, the film loses some steam, just as Presley’s career did, but the film is never ceases to keep us engaged and entertained. There is an emotionally complex moment when Austin Butler’s Presley finally realizes the truth of the deal he made with Parker, a low moment for the singer that is coupled with his growing health issues and personal issues. Late in the film, it gives Elvis fans a special treat, with moving archival footage of the real Elvis in a late-life Las Vegas performance, an overweight but still charismatic Elvis seated at a piano in his big-collared, sequined costume and crooning affectionately to his adoring fans. It is a sweet, event bittersweet, note to end the film, one that might touch even non-Elvis fans.

ELVIS offers an entertaining carnival ride version of Elvis Presley’s and Tom Parker’s story, suffused with Baz Luhrmann’s color-drenched signature style, and elevated with an award-worthy turn by Tom Hanks as the manipulative, mysterious Tom Parker and a breakout charismatic performance by Austin Butler as Elvis. If you are a fan of either Baz Luhrmann or Elvis Presley, this one hits the mark.

ELVIS opens June 24 in theaters.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars

Everybody in the Whole Cell Block! Elvis in JAILHOUSE ROCK Screening at The Wildey Theater in Edwardsville Tuesday March 29th

“I can’t have my cell mate walkin’ around lookin’ like a bum. I got a reputation to live up to.”

Nothing’s more fun than The Wildey’s Tuesday Night Film Series.. Elvis Presley in JAILHOUSE ROCK (1957) will be on the big screen when it plays at The Wildey Theater in Edwardsville, IL (252 N Main St, Edwardsville, IL 62025) at 7:00pm Tuesday March 29th. Tickets are only $3  Tickets available starting at 3pm day of movie at Wildey Theatre ticket office.  Cash or check only. (cash, credit cards accepted for concessions)  Lobby opens at 6pm.

Vince Everett is serving a one-year jail sentence for manslaughter. While in the big house, his cellmate, a former country singer, introduces him to the record business. Everett takes to it so well that he decides to become a singer when he gets out. However, he is quickly disillusioned by the record business. But with the help of a new friend, he decides to form his own label, and soon becomes an overnight sensation. But when he becomes a superstar, will his desire for fame and money cause him to forget the people who got him there?

Elvis Presley in IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD’S FAIR Available on Blu-ray June 22nd From Warner Archive

Elvis Presley in IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD’S FAIR (1963) will be available June 22nd from Warner Archive

Fun, music and Elvis all happen in this romp boasting one of the best backdrops of any Elvis Presley movie: the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. The King plays pilot-for-hire Mike, whose hope of starting his own flying business is grounded by the gambling of his copilot Danny (Gary Lockwood). The two hitch to Seattle, where Mike finds romance, Danny finds easy marks and both find problems prior to a “Happy Ending.” Keep an eye out for Kurt Russell as the child who wallops Mike in the shins.

Austin Butler To Star As Elvis Presley Alongside Tom Hanks In Director Baz Luhrmann’s Untitled Elvis Project

Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that, after an extensive search, Baz Luhrmann has cast Austin Butler as Elvis Aaron Presley in the director’s upcoming film about the seminal legend. The announcement was made today by Toby Emmerich, Chairman, Warner Bros. Pictures Group.

In the movie, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Luhrmann (“The Great Gatsby,” “Moulin Rouge!”) will explore the life and music of Presley, through the prism of his complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker, played in the film by two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks (“Forrest Gump,” “Philadelphia”). The story will delve into their complex dynamic spanning over 20 years, from Presley’s rise to fame to his unprecedented stardom, against the backdrop of the evolving cultural landscape and loss of innocence in America.

Luhrmann stated, “I knew I couldn’t make this film if the casting wasn’t absolutely right, and we searched thoroughly for an actor with the ability to evoke the singular natural movement and vocal qualities of this peerless star, but also the inner vulnerability of the artist. Throughout the casting process, it was an honor for me to encounter such a vast array of talent. I had heard about Austin Butler from his stand-out role opposite Denzel Washington in The Iceman Cometh on Broadway, and through a journey of extensive screen testing and music and performance workshops, I knew unequivocally that I had found someone who could embody the spirit of one of the world’s most iconic musical figures.”

Butler made his Broadway debut in 2018 opposite Washington in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh,” under the direction of George C. Wolfe, and received rave reviews for his work in the role of “lost boy” Don Parritt. He will be seen later this month opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Butler, who also has extensive television credits, can currently be seen on the big screen alongside Bill Murray and Adam Driver in Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die.”

New York Premiere of Focus Features “The Dead Don’t Die” -Pictured: Vanessa Hudgens, Austin Butler -Photo by: Marion Curtis / StarPix for Focus Features -Location: The Museum of Modern Art

Luhrmann will direct from the current screenplay written by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. Luhrmann will also produce, alongside multiple-Oscar winner Catherine Martin (“The Great Gatsby,” “Moulin Rouge!”), who will once again serve as production designer and costume designer on the film, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss. Andrew Mittman will executive produce.

Principal photography will begin early next year, with filming taking place in Queensland, Australia with the support of the Queensland Government, Screen Queensland and the Australian Government’s Producer Offset program. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

FREE TO ROCK: HOW ROCK & ROLL HELPED END THE COLD WAR Screening at The St. Louis Science Center May 4th

Culture Shock: A Film Series presents its first in a traveling film series with the documentary FREE TO ROCK screening Saturday May 4th at 7pm at the Saint Louis Science Center’s OMNIMAX Theater (5050 Oakland Ave.) Admission is $7. Concessions will be available to purchase. A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE This is a benefit for
Helping Kids Together (http://www.helpingkidstogether.com/)

FREE TO ROCK is a 60 minute documentary film directed by 4 time Emmy winning filmmaker Jim Brown and narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. Ten years in the making, the film explores the soft power of Rock & Roll to affect social change behind the Iron Curtain between the years 1955 and 1991, and how it contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and to ending the Cold War. Rock & Roll sounded the “chimes of freedom” in the hearts and minds of Iron Curtain youth. Inspiring its youth to demand freedom to listen, play and record rock music, to enjoy basic human rights and freedom from oppressive communist rule. The story follows the key political, musical and activist players in this real-life drama as the KGB cracked down hard with arrests, beatings, death threats and imprisonment. Thousands of underground rock bands with millions of passionate supporters inspire and fuel independence movements that eventually cause the Soviet communist system to implode without blood shed or civil war. Interviews and performance subjects include: Presidents Carter, Gorbachev and Vike-Freiberga, NATO Deputy Secretary General Vershbow, KGB General Kalugin, diplomats, historians and journalists, along with Elvis Presley, Beatles, Billy Joel, Metallica, Scorpions, Beach Boys, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the WALL in Berlin concert; plus the Iron Curtain rockers who braved the long struggle with the Kremlin and KGB. The film is produced in collaboration with the Grammy Museum, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Stas Namin Center of Moscow, with support from the U.S. Government’s National Endowment of the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, both US Government arts agencies.

“Culture Shock” is the name of a film series here in St. Louis that is the cornerstone project of a social enterprise that is an ongoing source of support for Helping Kids Together (http://www.helpingkidstogether.com/) a St. Louis based social enterprise dedicated to building cultural diversity and social awareness among young people through the arts and active living.

The films featured for “Culture Shock” demonstrate an artistic representation of culture shock materialized through mixed genre and budgets spanning music, film and theater. Through ‘A Film Series’ working relationship with Schlafly Bottleworks, they seek to provide film lovers with an offbeat mix of dinner and a movie opportunities.

Julie Adams Has Died – WAMG Interview With the Star of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Julie Adams, the beautiful, leggy brunette with the cascading curls best remembered as the ‘Girl in the White One-Piece’ in the 1954 horror classic CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954), has died. She was 92.

Julie will always be best known as Kay Lawrence, the beauty that the Gillman falls in love with the moment he spies her swimming above him in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954). Mimicking her movements in the water, the Creature performs a lustful underwater mating dance – he’s directly beneath her but she’s unaware of his amorous overtures in the murky depths of the river. It’s a desire most men (and monster kids) could relate to and Julie Adams is the actress who will always be fondly remembered as the ‘girl in the white one-piece’.

Born Betty May Adams and raised near Little Rock Arkansas, Julie was bit by the acting bug early and moved to California to become an actress. She worked as a secretary to support herself and spent her free time taking speech lessons and making the rounds at the various movie studio casting departments. She began her film career in a series of low-budget westerns starring James Ellison and Russell Hayden. She billed herself under her real name until she was signed by Universal in 1949 where she changed it to Julia, and eventually the less-formal sounding Julie. Her breakthrough role was as the wealthy fiancee of newly blinded GI Arthur Kennedy in BRIGHT VICTORY in 1951. She followed this up with major roles opposite James Stewart in BEND OF THE RIVER (1952), Robert Ryan in HORIZONS WEST (1952), Rock Hudson in THE LAWLESS BREED (1953) and Glenn Ford in MAN FROM THE ALAMO (1953). The role that would garner her cult movie immortality was of course as the imperiled–and fetchingly underclad—heroine in CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Julie Adams followed this up with more starring roles; FRANCIS JOINS THE WACS (1954), SIX BRIDGES TO CROSS with Tony Curtis (1956), and ONE DESIRE (1956). She cut down on her film appearances in the early 1960s to focus on television, a medium that permitted her to hold out for meatier acting assignments. She acted in hundreds of TV shows over the next several decades, including regular parts in The Jimmy Stewart Show (as Stewart’s wife), a recurring role on Murder She Wrote, and all the way up to CSI, Cold Case, and Lost. She still acted in the occasional theatrical film including TICKLE ME with Elvis Presley (1965), and THE LAST MOVIE, director Dennis Hopper’s 1971 follow-up to EASY RIDER.

Julie Adams was married to actor/director Ray Danton from 1955 to 1978 and they worked together a number of times in film and on television. Their sons Steve and Mitch Danton have both worked behind the scenes in the film business for many years.

In 2012, after numerous requests from fans, Julie Adams, and with help from her son Mitch, she wrote her autobiography. The Lucky Southern Star: Reflections from the Black Lagoon covers her entire career and is packed with rare photographs of the actress from the movies and television shows she acted in. The book is available from Julie Adam’s website HERE and sells for $29.95, plus $3.00 for postage in the U.S., or $15 for International postage.

www.julieadams.biz

In 2012 Julie Adams was kind enough to take the time to speak to We Are Movie Geeks about her life, her career, and that scaly green monster.

Julie in publicity photos from THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman March 8th, 2012

We Are Movie Geeks: Greetings from St. Louis. Have you ever been to our city before?

Julie Adams: Yes, many years ago I performed at the Barn Dinner Theater there.

WAMG: Oh, that place is long gone.

JA: It was some time ago. We had fun there.

WAMG: I’d like to start out asking some questions about THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and then discuss other films from your career. You didn’t do horror movie conventions until 2002, what was it like attending your first con?

JA: I found it amazing that people were still enjoying that movie. It’s pretty old. It was lovely. It was really fun.

WAMG: Horror fans are a special breed. We become a little obsessive.

JA: I never mind obsessive. It’s very nice when people have enjoyed the movies. That’s what we made them for

WAMG: Why do you think THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON has endured and has attracted such rabid fans and does it surprise you?

JA: I am surprised really, but I think so much of the credit has to go to Jack Arnold our director and to the good script. It was just well done, but I am surprised really that has survived and that people still enjoy it so much. I’m delighted.

WAMG: Does it bother you that CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is what you’ll always be best known for.

JA: I’ve been in show business a long time and I figure whatever people love, then more power to it. Even though so many focus on THE CREATURE, they’ve also seen BEND OF THE RIVER and other things as well so no, I think we have to take it all with  a grain of salt and a good sense of humor.

WAMG: Do you wish you had acted in more monster movies?

JA: No. I think it’s wonderful that I did one that everybody loves so much but that’s enough. I really didn’t want to make that my whole career.

WAMG: They’ve made Creature toys, but more recently, they’ve made Julie Adams toys to go with them, Do you own these?

JA: I don’t think I have those but I’ve signed some of them.

WAMG: That white one piece swimming suit is as iconic a piece of movie wardrobe as Dorothy’s slippers or Travolta’s disco suit – what happened to that?

JA: People ask me that often, but I say it has gone the way of all latex. Long since disintegrated on its own.

WAMG: I guess they weren’t very visionary in those days in terms of keeping that kind of stuff.

JA: Well, who would have thought we’d even be talking about this movie all these years later. We didn’t know these things would become iconic many years later. We just made a movie.

WAMG: The Eel costume (an early version of the Creature costume featured in photos in Julie’s book) was interesting – it looks like an unfinished version of the Creature.

JA: I think they experimented for a while until they came up with something everyone liked. That one sort of looked like an eel, very smooth and so on. They tested them for different looks and then they chose the right one.

WAMG: You write that they shut down production for a couple of weeks to redesign the Creature. What was it like when they unveiled the final Creature costume?

JA: Oh, it was a real shock when we saw the Creature. And you can see from the pictures in the book that I look a little awestruck, kind of taken aback when I saw it at first. I thought it was quite wonderful, extraordinary, and a little scary which of course is exactly what is was supposed to be.

WAMG: Where were the underwater scenes filmed?

JA: That was all filmed in Florida at Wakulla Springs. I never got to be there during the shooting but I went there later to promote the movie.

WAMG: Why did they use a body double for some of the swimming shots? Was that a professional swimmer?

JA: Yes, that was Ginger Stanley. She was just wonderful. She and Ricou Browning (who wore the Creature suit in the underwater sequences) were both part of water shows in southern California and Florida and they were both just incredible swimmers of course.

WAMG: You mention you were friends with Lori Nelson, who starred in REVENGE OF THE CREATURE. Have you appeared at conventions with her?

JA: Yes, at one. Lori was a good friend and we worked together on BEND OF THE RIVER and we were always friends. Lovely person.

WAMG: Do you know if you were ever considered by Universal to star in any of the CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON sequels?

JA: Not that I know of, no. And I think it’s just as well. It makes our movie stand out more. It was the original.

WAMG: What about Ben Chapman (who wore the Creature suit in the out-of-water scenes) ? What kind of guy was he?

JA: Ben was such a great guy. He was a great friend, warm and funny. I really treasured him as a friend.

WAMG: Did you ever work with director Jack Arnold again?

JA: No, that was the only time I worked with Jack but I enjoyed it very much. He was very professional and very skilled. There was never any nonsense going on and he worked very hard. You always felt that you were doing good work with him.

WAMG: If they remade CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON would you like to have a cameo?

JA: Oh, I don’t know if I want to appear all these years later to the fans. Let’s see the original and see me as I was all those years ago.

WAMG: I think those fans would love to see you in it though, perhaps in a walk-on or small part.

JA: Well, if they ever did it and they asked me, of course I would say yes.

WAMG: Good. Enough about the Creature. Let’s talk a bit about journey from Little Rock Arkansas to Hollywood.

JA: I had my ‘Aunt Ruth’, she was really my father’s first wife who had always loved him. She owned a bathing suit shop in Long Beach and she outfitted girls for bathing beauty contests and the like. She got in touch with me in Arkansas and she knew that I had been in drama classes and she said that if I ever wanted a go at something in the movies, I could go out to her and she’d help me out. So I took her up on it. When I came to California, I came first to Long Beach. A young woman who worked with her in her shop had an appointment in Hollywood. Her name was Valerie Sorelle and so I shared an apartment with her. So that was the connection.

WAMG: So many of your early films were westerns.  Why do you think that was? Could you ride a horse?

JA: Yes, I’ve always loved horses and back in Arkansas they had horse shows at certain times of the year at a park near where I lived and I was friends with some of the people at the stables and I would ride the horses and was crazy about them, so I was already a fairly good rider and I loved doing westerns.

WAMG: So it was a good match

JA: Yes, it was kind of a natural.

Julie with Kerwin Mathews is TARAWA BEACHEAD (1958) and with Van Heflin in WINGS OF THE HAWK (1953)

WAMG: Was it difficult for an actress to get  a contract with a studio like Universal in those days. What was it like being under contract with Universal.

JA: I guess it wasn’t terribly easy but I had been out to read for Sophie Rosenstein who was the head of casting at Universal for young players. She liked me and she brought me out to assist in a screen test. It wasn’t my screen test, it was somebody else. Then she turned the camera around and shot my part of the test and from that, they brought me out to read for BRIGHT VICTORY with Arthur Kennedy. It was the story of a blinded veteran back from the war and I got the part of his previous girlfriend. It didn’t really work out, but I got that part and it was a very nice part in BRIGHT VICTORY from that. They had an option on the contract and Universal picked up the option and I was under contract which was lovely.

WAMG: Who were some of your favorite leading men to work with?

JA: I think I have to put James Stewart at the top of the list. BEND OF THE RIVER was one of my first assignments and it was great to work with such a wonderful screen actor. I remember watching him do  a close-up, I was off-camera, I though how wonderful, he was not doing anything but everything was there in his face. Great lessons for a screen actor. And of course I got to work with Arthur Kennedy and Rock Hudson and I were great friends and we did a couple of movies together. I was very fortunate.

Julie with Richard Conte in HOLLYWOOD STORY (1951) and in PSYCHIC KILLER (1975)

WAMG: You costarred with Jimmy Stewart in a TV show a couple of decades later. Didn’t you play his wife in that show?

JA: I did, I played his wife on The Jimmy Stewart Show.

WAMG: But he was at least twenty years older than you.

JA: That’s right but I didn’t care and the audience didn’t seem to care. I always said my idea of heaven was going to work with Jimmy Stewart every day for six months.

WAMG: Jimmy Stewart and Rock Hudson were both tall men.

JA: Oh yes, Jimmy Stewart was about 6 foot 3.

WAMG: Were you tall? Did that play a part in why you were cast with them?

JA: I was about 5′ 7″ which was about average so I don’t think so.

Julie with Rock Hudson in ONE DESIRE (1953) and with John Wayne in McQ (1974)

WAMG: What about Tony Curtis? What was he like?

JA: Oh, Tony was great fun. We were always good friends. I remember a couple of years later in I was in the commissary at Universal and Tony came in after we’d worked on the movie (SIX BRIDGES TO CROSS), he came rushing in and gave me a hug. Always a very charming fellow Tony, I liked him very much.

WAMG: Can you describe meeting Elvis for the first time when you worked with him in TICKLE ME?

JA: It was not that difficult because I was not really and Elvis Presley fan. I wasn’t in awe of him or anything. I’m from the South so I felt very at home with Elvis because he was a really charming young Southern gentleman. I kind of knew his type and I like him very much.

WAMG: What was it like to work with him as an actor?

JA: Completely professional. Always very prepared. As I said, such a charming fellow. There was one scene where I was in the nightclub and we did a singing number. And I was in awe because I watched him and he did it in one take, walking all around and he was really working to a playback but he he was perfect. That was amazing. I enjoyed working with him very very much. I was the “older” woman in the picture. I think I was about 35 then, and there were as lot of young ladies there and he sent all of us flowers on the first day of shooting. A lovely experience.

WAMG: You married actor Ray Danton in 1955. What Hollywood couples did you and Ray Danton hang out with?

JA: I don’t know if we really hung out with other couples. I stayed friends with Rock Hudson, and Sally Kellerman was a friend and Bob Rafelson. I even knew Robert Blake and his family. Neville Brand was a friend.

WAMG: Did you ever work with or meet Charles Bronson?

JA: No. I never worked with him. I thought he was very good, but I never got a chance to work with him.

Julie with Elvis in TICKLE ME (1965) and with Dennis Hopper in THE LAST MOVIE (1971)

WAMG: You did a ton of TV work in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s. What were some of your favorite shows to work on?

JA: I worked with Chuck Conners on The Rifleman. It was one episode but it was going to be a recurring role but it didn’t work out because of my pregnancy. I loved working on Big Valley. I got to work with Barbara Stanwyck which was just fantastic. I was so thrilled to be working with a big movie star I had seen on the screen back in Arkansas and she was such a great person as well as being such a fantastic actress. I played a villainess and got to push her around. There was a lot of good television work around in those days.

WAMG: What was it like on The Andy Griffith Show with Don Knotts.

JA: Well that was great fun. A lot of laughs. Andy Griffith was from the south so I felt right at home with him and Don Knotts was just a really funny delightful guy so I had a great time working on that show.

WAMG: I recently read a biography of Dennis Hopper and your recollection of working on the LAST MOVIE is very different from what’s described in that book. The book paints the making of that film as a drug-addled bacchanalia but you describe it much differently.

JA: I remember arriving in Peru to film that and visiting the set to see what everyone was doing and they were improvising a lot. I thought that was okay and I could do that. I had a fun time. It was very loose and I had a really fun character to play. She was very sexy and I usually didn’t get to play that kind of part. I liked Dennis. He worked very hard. There was all that stuff about all sorts of crazy things going on in Peru but I never saw Dennis being crazy or high on something. What he did after work, I have no idea.

WAMG: What inspired you to write your memoirs?

JA: I had been at a screening at the Egyptian Theater of SIX BRIDGES TO CROSS and my son Mitch and I came out of the theater and there was a fan there who asked if I had a book. Mitch and I looked at each other and an idea was born.

WAMG: What’s next for Julie Adams?

JA: I don’t really know. I’m at the stage where if I’m working, that’s fine, but if I’m not, it’s nice not to have to be somewhere at 6:30 am. I’ve got 4 or 5 conventions lined up that I’ll be attending. There’s a huge interest in the book and people are inviting me everywhere.

WAMG: The book is terrific and the photos in it are wonderful. Good luck with the book and thanks for taking the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks.

JA: You’re so welcome.

Julie Adams, still beautiful today