Baz Luhrmann announced the release of ‘Elvis’ concert cut
Baz Luhrmann released one of the biggest musicals of the year in the form of Elvis, a highly anticipated biopic about the titular popular culture icon. Starring Austin Butler as Elvis Presley, the film received widespread critical acclaim and sweeping commercial success.
Elvis boasts a heft runtime of 159 minutes, but that wasn’t enough for a lot of fans who have been calling for the release of the extended version. After Luhrmann announced the existence of a four-hour cut, there have been incessant social media posts about the alternate version.
In a new interview with IndieWire, Luhrmann clarified: “It’s a directors’ assembly. It’s not a cut. There’s a whole lot of material that adds up to four hours, but I have gone on record now to say not today, not tomorrow, but at some point, I would do [it].”
While the details are still ambiguous, the release has been confirmed. Luhrmann praised his star: “Austin did his concerts full out. He did all the numbers. Austin just did it, and it was an out-of-body experience to watch him do those full concerts, so one day, I will cut those full concerts together.”
The filmmaker also noted the technical efforts that made the biopic a success: “We just had all the cameras. [Cinematographer] Mandy Walker even got the lenses reproduced from the ’60s and ’70s, and ’80s to match exactly everything.”
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