{"id":210165,"date":"2025-09-08T12:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210165\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T12:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T12:21:12","slug":"baz-luhrmann-talks-about-his-new-elvis-presley-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/210165\/","title":{"rendered":"Baz Luhrmann Talks About His New Elvis Presley Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baz Luhrmann and Elvis Presley are, it seems, forever intertwined.<\/p>\n

While speaking with TheWrap on Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival about his new documentary \u201cEPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,\u201d which unearths long-lost concert footage from Elvis\u2019 Las Vegas residency, the filmmaker confirmed his long-discussed stage musical adaptation of his 2022 is also formally in the works.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019ve announced it, but there\u2019s a stage musical being made of the movie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Luhrmann, of course, directed \u201cElvis,\u201d which starred Austin Butler as the legendary musician and Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker, the singer\u2019s duplicitous manager. The movie was a huge hit, making more than $288 million worldwide and earning eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (for Butler).<\/p>\n

Now, Luhrmann is back with \u201cEPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,\u201d a documentary feature for which Luhrmann restored lost concert footage of Elvis, along with previously unseen footage from a pair of concert documentaries (1970\u2019s \u201cElvis: That\u2019s the Way It Is\u201d and 1972\u2019s \u201cElvis on Tour\u201d). Like Luhrmann\u2019s \u201cElvis,\u201d \u201cEPiC\u201d will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, including on IMAX screens and other premium formats. The new documentary just debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Luhrmann spoke with Steve Pond about how the Las Vegas residency really was a turning point for the performer \u2013 he had so many ambitious, to tour England and Japan. (He never did make it to Japan.) But with Las Vegas, he became trapped. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe speculate what would have happened had he not been like a bird hitting its head against glass, had he just gone round and round the same circuit. He was not meant to be in Vegas more than once. He was there until the day died,\u201d Luhrmann said.<\/p>\n

He started hearing about the lost footage when he was preparing the \u201cElvis\u201d movie. \u201cThe tapes were mythical. No one knew \u2013 did they really exist?\u201d Luhrmann said. He had a team go into the salt mines in Kansas where MGM keeps all its negatives. He said the vaults were like \u201cRaids of the Lost Ark\u201d (\u201cI\u2019m not exaggerating\u201d). It was in the mines that he found 35 hours of negative, although there was no magnetic tape, so they had to find secondary sources to create the audio. <\/p>\n

\"BazBaz Luhrmann, director, producer, \u201cEPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert\u201d at TheWrap\u2019s TIFF 2025 Portrait Studio (Photo by Austin Hargrave for TheWrap)<\/p>\n

He worked with Peter Jackson and the team at Park Road, who also helped on some recent Beatles documentaries, to find the appropriate audio. Slowly, the project came together. Sometimes he would mix-and-match audio and video, sometimes he would use an array of assets \u2013 \u201ca combination between his original vocal on stage, some recorded vocal, our own orchestrations\u201d \u2013 to create what Luhrmann called \u201ca dreamscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"california-schemin\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

But is Luhrmann finally done with Elvis?<\/p>\n

He said he is very deep into prep for his upcoming \u201cJoan of Arc\u201d movie, but acknowledges that he and the King are now forever linked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I now recognize that, better or worse, Elvis is going to be part of my life for the rest of it, in some way or another,\u201d said Luhrmann. The footage in the new documentary, he said, is \u201cthe tip of the iceberg, really.\u201d Included in the footage is another entire concert, at Hampton Road, that would take a half-a-million-dollars just to get up and on its feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow we\u2019re inextricably linked,\u201d Luhrmann said.<\/p>\n

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