The first trailer for ‘Elvis’ has just dropped

Directed by Baz Luhrmann, Elvis features Austin Butler in the lead role who we get to see plenty of in the movie’s first trailer.

Fans of biopics are in for a treat in the near future with Timothée Chalamet playing Bob Dylan in Going Electric, Bradley Cooper starring as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, Kingsley Ben-Adir set to play Bob Marley, and now we get our first look at Austin Butler’s portrayal of the King of Rock in Elvis.

The road to this trailer was not an easy one— with the pandemic swinging into its early throes during the midst of this film’s production in Australia. Tom Hanks, who plays Elvis’ manager in the movie, and Rita Wilson were some of the first high-profile cases of COVID-19, which cause the filming to shut down until September 2020. However, this didn’t stop Butler from working his hardest to nail his depiction of Presley.

The 30-year-old star Butler was upfront about the monumental task of embodying the music legend, who died in 1977 at the age of 42. “When I began the process, I set out to get my voice to be identical. That instills fear. So that got the fire burning,” Butler said. “For a year before we started shooting, I was doing voice coaching.”

Luhrmann made clear it is Butler’s voice for young Elvis and a blend of the Butler and tapes of Presley for midlife Elvis.
“I watched as much as I could, over and over,” Butler said of studying the abundance of Presley’s films and concerts. “I feel such a responsibility to Elvis and to [ex-wife] Priscilla and [daughter] Lisa Marie, and all the people around the world who love him so much.”

Watch the trailer here:

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