Though Baz Luhrmann has previously shot down talk of a director’s cut of this year’s “Elvis”, he is very open to another idea involving the film.
Talk of a director’s cut emerged around the time of the film’s release, with Luhrmann officially killing off that talk last week, stating that the cause of the rumor tied to a four-hour assembly cut of the film he had, which is a long way from a finished work.
This week though, he did reveal that he is much more inclined to do a one-off concert film showing off one of the movie’s best elements – Austin Butler’s performance as Elvis. At a recent Q&A (video here) he says:
“As this film grows in its kind of, I suppose, success – the fact that young audiences have come to see it, 15 and 16-year-olds are a big part of our audience, real Elvis fans, but people who go, ‘I knew nothing about Elvis, I don’t care about Elvis,’ have gone into his life – I thought it would be great for you guys to have the experience only we had, which is to watch Austin do the entire concert. So I can’t say exactly when because I have got to get through this, but I can say one thing: there will be a day when we do that concert version.”
Previously Butler said during the press tour in Australia with WSFM that he shot entire concerts, such as the Las Vegas one and the 1968 concert where he is in black leather, entirely in character and without breaks:
“I would come on stage, like in Vegas, do the entire concert, curtain comes down, I walk off. So every time the audience is getting the experience of the show. And if we would cut for any reason, I would entertain the crowd as Elvis. It was the same thing as him having to make jokes to keep everyone entertained.”
“Elvis,” which grossed $286 million worldwide, is currently available to watch on HBO Max.
