Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic bids to get down with the kids

For Gen Z, Elvis Pres­ley wasn’t the fix­a­tion of their par­ents but rather their grand­par­ents’ – or even their great-grand­par­ents before that. He was a rock ​’n’ roll star, a fig­ure of rebel­lion; cen­sored on the tele­vi­sion in his ear­ly years, frowned upon by the old­er gen­er­a­tion and the cause of mass teenage hys­te­ria. Today, the escapades of pop stars are far less con­strained, and Elvis’ hip thrusts seem rel­a­tive­ly tame by comparison.

Baz Luhrmann has set him­self the daunt­ing task of turn­ing The King into a fig­ure of cul­tur­al intrigue again, via his upcom­ing Elvis biopic which will receive its world pre­mière at the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val this month. It’s a poten­tial­ly career-mak­ing role that attract­ed every bright young thing in Hol­ly­wood to audi­tion, includ­ing Har­ry Styles, Aaron Tay­lor-John­son and Miles Teller. Instead, Luhrmann opt­ed for for­mer Dis­ney Chan­nel and Nick­elodeon star Austin But­ler as his lead.

But­ler will star oppo­site Tom Han­ks as the singer’s con­trol­ling man­ag­er, Colonel Tom Park­er. Round­ing off the cast are Olivia DeJonge as Priscil­la Pres­ley and Dacre Mont­gomery as pro­duc­er Steve Binder, names that should already be famil­iar to younger view­ers giv­en their respec­tive roles in Netflix’s The Soci­ety and Stranger Things.

Luhrmann has also opt­ed for a post­mod­ern sound­track, employ­ing mod­ern music to avoid alien­at­ing audi­ences. Pre­vi­ous­ly, he turned F Scott Fitzgerald’s class­room clas­sic ​‘The Great Gats­by’ into a glitzy romp with music pro­duced by Jay‑Z. The Elvis sound­track made its debut dur­ing Doja Cat’s head­line per­for­mance at Coachel­la last month.

Else­where, ​‘Vegas’, a near unrecog­nis­able ren­di­tion of ​‘Hound Dog’, sam­ples the song’s orig­i­nal artist, Big Mama Thor­ton. Also set to fea­ture is Kacey Mus­graves with a cov­er of ​‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’, while 2021 Euro­vi­sion win­ners and Tik­Tok dar­lings Måne­skin will tack­le ​‘If I Can Dream’.

The Aus­tralian director’s biggest hur­dle may be rec­on­cil­ing Elvis’ rep­u­ta­tion with the younger generation’s polit­i­cal views. While oth­er musi­cians who have recent­ly been giv­en a biopic makeover such as Fred­die Mer­cury and Elton John were LGBTQ+ icons, Elvis met his wife when she was just 14 and built his suc­cess on the sounds of African-Amer­i­can musi­cians. With the Amer­i­can Civ­il Rights Move­ment serv­ing as the film’s back­drop, it will be inter­est­ing to see how Luhrmann han­dles the coiffed crooner’s com­pli­cat­ed legacy.