Whilst out doing promotional rounds for the new “Elvis” movie, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann revealed he had a full four-cut of the movie at one point before he ultimately trimmed it back to a (still considerably long) 159-minute version which is what has gone out theatrically.
Luhrmann has also recently been working on “Faraway Downs,” a TV series recut of his $130 million-budgeted 2008 period drama epic “Australia”. Luhrmann has taken that film, which also had a large runtime of 165 minutes, and re-edited it into a six-part television series for Hulu and the Star section of the Disney+ service later this year.
With Warners releasing “Elvis” theatrically and its need to constantly feed the HBO Max content beast ever-present, it begs the obvious question – will we see Luhrmann’s four-hour cut either in full or episodic form?
In a new interview with Collider, he confirmed that the longer cut is the assembly cut as opposed to a director’s cut, and while he might be open to doing a longer version for streaming – the possibility is likely years away:
“I’ve just been going through this experience on, I did Australia, but Hulu… It’s funny, the same executive, well, Hulu has asked me would I do an episodic version and I’ve just about finished it.
It’s actually so funny because I feel like it’s a variation on. If you write a piece of music, it’s a variation on. I think it’s a really legitimate telling. It’s not just filler.
I can’t even begin to conceive what a longer version of this [Elvis] would be right now. But the idea that there’s a different riff on this theatrical version, that’s years down the road. It’s years down the road, but it’s possible. But I can’t underline enough, it’s not tomorrow. It’s years down the road.”
He goes on to say those who are fans and want to see more, he plans to “release a few things that are just special that maybe didn’t make it into the movie or that are just special.” So we can probably expect some deleted scenes to surface later this year closer to the home release.
“Elvis” opened this weekend in various markets and, should it stick to Warners’ 45-day HBO Max release window, should arrive on the streaming platform in the second week of August.
