Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Project Announced At Sony Event
Baz Luhrmann revealed footage from his upcoming project EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert during the Sony Music Vision on May 29th. Combing through countless never-before-seen performances, unheard interview recordings and restored rarities, the acclaimed filmmaker has been developing the feature documentary alongside his longtime Academy Award-nominated editor, Jonathan Redmond, since production on his 2022 hit film Elvis. Woven together with Luhrmann’s uniquely electric style, EPiC offers audiences Elvis singing and telling his own story as we’ve never seen or heard him before.
When speaking about the film, Luhrmann said, “During the making of ELVIS, we went on a search for rumored unseen footage from the iconic 1970s concert films Elvis: That’s The Way It Is and Elvis on Tour. My initial thought was that we may be able to restore the unused footage (if we could find it) and use it in our Elvis feature, starring Austin Butler. I had researchers go into the Warners Bros. film vaults buried in underground salt mines and, to the astonishment of all, we uncovered 68 boxes of film negative, as well as unseen 8mm footage. It has taken two years to restore the footage to a quality that it has never been projected at previously, while the team had to meticulously claw back sound from the many, unconventional sources that were also unearthed. One of the great finds has been unheard recordings of Elvis talking about his life and his music. It was this that gave the inspiration for EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, which is not specifically a documentary, nor a concert film: Elvis takes the audience through the journey of his life, weaving never-before-seen footage with iconic performances that have never been presented in this way, from the 1970 Vegas show, on tour in 1972 and even precious moments of the 1957 “gold jacket” performance in Hawaii. Most importantly, Elvis will sing and tell you about his life in first person, through both classic and contemporary musical prisms.”