Elvis is a 2022 musical epic biographical drama film co-produced and directed by Baz Luhrmann, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner. It chronicles the life of the American singer and actor Elvis Presley under the management of Colonel Tom Parker. It stars Austin Butler and Tom Hanks as Presley and Parker, respectively, with Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Luke Bracey in supporting roles.
10 years after the 2005 mini-series, a biographical film about Presley was first announced in 2014, with Luhrmann set to direct. However, the project languished in development hell until early 2019, when Hanks joined the film. Butler was cast in the title role that July, beating out several other actors including Miles Teller and Harry Styles. Filming began in Australia in January 2020 but was put on hiatus in March after Hanks tested positive for COVID-19 at the onset of the pandemic. Production resumed in September, wrapping in March 2021.
Elvis premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 25 May 2022, and was released in Australia on 23 June and in the United States on 24 June, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing over $288 million worldwide against an $85 million budget. The American Film Institute named Elvis one of the top-ten films of 2022. Elvis received eight nominations at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Butler, among numerous other accolades. A stage adaptation, with Luhrmann attached as a producer, is in development.
During production of Elvis, Luhrmann unearthed previously unseen footage of Presley that ended up forming the basis of a documentary, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. It was released in September 2025.
Plot
Raised mostly by his doting mother Gladys, Elvis Presley spends his childhood in the slums of Tupelo, Mississippi, finding solace in music and comic books. After moving with his parents to Memphis, Tennessee, he is ridiculed by his peers due to his fascination with the African-American music of Beale Street. Colonel Tom Parker, at the time a carnival huckster, manages country singer Hank Snow but realizes Elvis' crossover potential when he hears "That's All Right," initially assuming that the artist is black. That night, after witnessing his intense sex appeal at a "Louisiana Hayride" performance, Parker invites Elvis to accompany him on a tour and convinces Elvis to let him take control of his career, which begins Elvis' meteoric ascent: he moves from Sun Records to RCA Records, his father Vernon is appointed as business manager of Elvis Presley Enterprises, and the family is lifted out of poverty.
The regional public is polarized on Elvis. Feeling that his music will corrupt white children and stoke racial hostility, segregationist Southern Democrat Mississippi Senator James Eastland calls Parker to an informal hearing and probes his mysterious past. When Elvis flouts the authorities' warnings and performs suggestive dance moves at a concert, he faces legal trouble. Parker persuades the government to draft Elvis into the Army instead of penalizing him. Elvis returns from basic training only to be devastated by his mother's death from drinking. During his military service in West Germany, he meets 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Air Force pilot. After his discharge, he embarks on a film career and later marries Priscilla.
As the popular culture of the 1960s passes Elvis by, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 devastate him. Although he wants to become more politically outspoken in his music, Parker has booked a family-friendly Christmas television special where he will only perform frivolous feel-good songs. Elvis works with Steve Binder to re-imagine the special, and his performance, including the closing song "If I Can Dream," which incorporates not only a review of his past songs but also political commentary. Corporate sponsors threaten litigation, enraging Parker; however, the show is highly successful.
Afterward, Elvis headlines at the largest showroom in Las Vegas in the International Hotel, and resumes concert tours. Parker's control of Elvis' life tightens as he refuses his request for a world tour. Motivated by gambling debts, Parker manipulates Elvis into signing a contract for a five-year Las Vegas casino residency. Elvis' problematic behavior and prescription drug addiction overtake him, and a despondent Priscilla divorces him, taking their daughter Lisa Marie with her. After discovering that Parker cannot leave the country because he is a stateless illegal immigrant, Elvis attempts to fire him. Parker subsequently informs Vernon that the family owes him an $8,549,761.09 debt accumulated since 1955 and convinces Elvis of their symbiotic relationship; though they became distant afterward, Parker continues as his manager. Increasingly exhausted after a continuously rigorous schedule of shows, Elvis expresses to Priscilla his fear of being forgotten after death, as he believes he has achieved nothing worthwhile.
On 21 June 1977, in Rapid City, South Dakota, an obese, pale, and weak Elvis sings "Unchained Melody" to thunderous applause. He dies shortly thereafter, on 16 August 1977. Parker claims what really killed Elvis was neither his heart attack nor drug-related suicide as some believe, but rather his love for his fans.
A postscript states that Parker's financial abuse of Elvis was exposed in a series of lawsuits beginning a few years after Elvis' death. Parker tried to claim immunity as a citizen of no country, but eventually settled out in court and ending his ties with the Presley estate. Parker then spent his final years in ill health wandering through Las Vegas' casinos pouring his wealth into the slot machines. Elvis remained the best-selling solo artist of all time. His influence on music and culture lives on.
Cast
Production
Development and casting
Steve Tisch and Gary Goodman purchased the film rights to Peter Guralnick's Elvis biography Last Train to Memphis in 1995, which would have focused on Presley's early career until his military draft. A screenplay was written by Tom Rickman as a 20th Century Fox production. In 1996, Jerry Schilling was brought aboard as a producer/consultant and Tom Parker as a technical advisor, with Elvis Presley Enterprises entering negotiations with imaging and music rights. The plan was to cast an unknown actor for the lead role. Last Train to Memphis languished in development through 2013, when Kevin Macdonald was announced as director and Mick Jagger as producer. Fox 2000 would have released the film, but the project never materialized. This was not the first time Elvis's life has been brought to the screen, having previously been portrayed in numerous television shows, most notably the John Carpenter film from 1979, and a two-part mini-series released by CBS from 20 years ago also titled Elvis (2005), featuring a Golden Globe winning performance from Irish born actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the lead role, that largely focused on his early life from the 1950s and 60's, which had also been done with the co-operation of the Elvis Presley estate and was the first to use Presley's master recordings in a biographical film.
Baz Luhrmann's involvement was first announced in April 2014, with Kelly Marcel writing the script for Warner Bros. No further development was announced until March 2019, when Tom Hanks was cast in the role of Colonel Tom Parker. Luhrmann was set as director, and also replaced Marcel as screenwriter with Sam Bromell and Craig Pearce.
In July, the frontrunners for the role of Presley were Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Austin Butler, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Harry Styles; later that month Butler won the role, after impressing Luhrmann with an audition tape of himself singing "Unchained Melody". Luhrmann revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he got a call from Denzel Washington recommending Butler, having previously worked with him in a 2018 theatre production of The Iceman Cometh. In October, Olivia DeJonge was cast to play Priscilla Presley. Maggie Gyllenhaal and Rufus Sewell were cast as Gladys and Vernon Presley in February 2020 (though they were replaced in the film by Helen Thomson and Richard Roxburgh, respectively), with Yola cast as Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Filming Principal photography began on 28 January 2020, in Australia. On 12 March 2020, production was halted when Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic. Filming resumed on 23 September. In September 2020, Luke Bracey, Richard Roxburgh, Helen Thomson, Dacre Montgomery, Natasha Bassett, Xavier Samuel, Leon Ford, Kate Mulvany, Gareth Davies, Charles Grounds, Josh McConville, and Adam Dunn joined the cast of the film. Roxburgh and Thomson replaced Sewell and Gyllenhaal, respectively, who had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts caused by the shooting delay. Kelvin Harrison Jr. was announced to be portraying B. B. King in December. In January 2021, it was reported that Alton Mason would be portraying Little Richard in the film. On 25 May 2022, Butler revealed to GQ that after filming wrapped in March 2021, he was hospitalized and bedridden for a week after being diagnosed with a virus that simulated appendicitis.
Music
On 25 April 2022, it was announced that American rapper Doja Cat would contribute an original song for the film, "Vegas", which incorporates elements from Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog". It was released as a single on 6 May 2022, ahead of the film's companion soundtrack album, scheduled for release that summer by RCA Records. The album also features variations on Presley material by big name artists in a variety of genres and styles. Sound artists and audio engineers François Tétaz and Lachlan Carrick mastered and produced the album (which was nominated for a Grammy), including the Doja Cat track.
Italian band Måneskin and American country singer Kacey Musgraves are also part of the soundtrack, with their respective cover versions of "If I Can Dream" and "Can't Help Falling in Love". Rapper Eminem and CeeLo Green collaborated on a track titled "The King and I" which was produced by Dr. Dre. Other artists to feature on the album include Stevie Nicks, Jack White, Diplo, Swae Lee and many more, along with the film's cast. Austin Butler's renditions of Presley's songs, as well as actual recordings by Presley himself, are also featured.
On 12 June 2022, Luhrmann revealed that when Presley sings in the film, it is Butler's vocals that are used when he is young. To prove it, he released on social media an early 2019 pre-production test shoot of Butler as young Presley performing "That's All Right" live on set, which went viral and received an overwhelmingly positive response from viewers. Butler's vocals were blended with Presley's when he is older.
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