Baz Luhrmann often finds himself at the forefront of cutting-edge invention. His brilliant Moulin Rouge, still one of his best movies, mashed up period romance with contemporary love songs. He continued to experiment with music and time in the illustrious The Great Gatsby, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead, and then took the Elvis mythology for a spin in Elvis, a movie that earned eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor (for Austin Butler). You would think that a movie that earned a Best Picture nod and critical praise would be ideal in its current format. But that’s not how Luhrmann thinks.
Baz Luhrmann is in the headlines recently for the Hulu series Faraway Downs, which essentially is the director’s 2008 feature Australia starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, only divided into episodes and enhanced with footage that he had to remove from the theatrical cut. This is not just “a longer version of Australia.” This has narrative turns that were removed from the story, and a different ending, restored after test audiences disapproved of what Luhrmann wanted to convey. And now that he has tried this approach to Australia, Luhrmann is planning to do the same to Elvis.
During an exclusive interview with CinemaBlend about Faraway Downs, Luhrmann spoke about the process, and how it now has him thinking about his recent Best Picture nominee. And he said:
Doing it episodically, and to your question, it's made me think about doing that even more radically. And now, I get in a lot of trouble. Here's the scoop. But with Elvis, okay? Not this year. Maybe not next year. But I really would love to do the episodic version of Elvis. And I'll take a completely different storytelling style than I would if I'd done it for the cinema.
The Elvis story obviously is one that can survive numerous interpretations. Currently, Sofia Coppola has Priscilla in theaters, a tender drama that tells the Elvis myth from his teenage wife’s perspective. And damn, is Cailee Spaeny excellent in the role of Priscilla Presley. Baz Luhrmann focused heavily on the relationship between Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) and his manager, Col. Tom Parker (Tom Hanks)... who hardly shows up in Priscilla at all. That illustrates how easy it is to tell an Elvis story, but put your own stamp on it.
Why, though, would Baz Luhrmann want to do this to Elvis, a movie that largely was well received? As he went on to tell us:
Now, okay, why would I be so stupid? And why would I draw all the fire and brimstone down on myself like that? Well, like when an iconic, popular musician does a song and they perform it in concert and they do, you know, let's say it's a dance cut, they do a heavy metal version. I think of the dexterity of music, and the ability to take the same piece and reinterpret and rediscover. It keeps the artist engaged. But it also keeps decoding and recoding the story, (and) keeps it alive in the moment. So that's why I would do it. And I think I would do it with Elvis.
I have zero problems with Baz Luhrmann taking his existing material and reworking it, either into a Director’s Cut feature film, or expanding it into a television series. If Luhrmann filmed enough for Elvis to break it into a multi-episode limited series the way that he did with Australia and Faraway Downs, more power to him – so long as the existing cut of Elvis that we fell in love with stays the same. Leave that as it is, and ALSO offer up an option, and we will watch both!
