Austin Butler’s favourite Elvis Presley song
Read More
Credit: Alamy
The career-defining film role Elvis Presley turned down
Throughout the 1960s, Elvis Presley spent most of his time chasing money and working in movie musicals. While this turned him into a Hollywood star, it also made his relevancy fade, and in the following decade, Presley wanted to stay as far from musicals as possible.
Although he could still perform concerts in sold-out arenas, Presley couldn’t buy a hit for love or money. Colonel Parker completely controlled his business dealings but didn’t always fulfil Elvis’ wishes. In the ’70s, Parker was supposed to make Presley become ‘The King’ once more, but instead, he made insane demands which prevented his talent from making a grand comeback.
In 1974, Elvis was presented the idea by Barbra Streisand to star in A Star Is Born, and Presley didn’t need much convincing. The film was initially made in 1934, a new version was also a success two decades later, and Streisand’s take on the classic was as much of a guaranteed hit as possible in Hollywood.
Streisand visited Elvis backstage after a performance at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace to tell him he was an ideal fit for the role. She was accompanied by her boyfriend Jon Peters, who was set to produce the film, and also felt Elvis was the perfect person to star alongside Streisand. After all, it was about a jaded rockstar and could have been written about him.
Presley was co-producer Streisand’s first choice when she optioned rights for the film in the mid-70s. She presented the idea to him on March 28th, 1974, while visiting Presley backstage after a performance at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace, accompanied by her boyfriend Jon Peters, who would also be on producing duties.
Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick wrote in Carless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley: “Elvis was completely turned on by the meeting. He was excited by its subject (he knew the highly emotional 1954 picture well), he was pleased with the idea that Streisand would approach him in this manner, and he was proud of the way he had responded, flattering the Hollywood star just enough…he spoke excitedly about it for days to the guys.”
Elvis wanted to appear in the film, and it would have been the perfect career move at that juncture. It’d been two years since he’d had a successful single with ‘Burning Love’, and he hadn’t acted for five years, which was a long enough wait for anticipation to build.
However, Colonel Parker wasn’t sold on the project because Streisand was the real star rather than Presley, even though his client didn’t care about his billing. Therefore, Parker decided to make unreasonable demands which would price Presley out of appearing in the film. Although he felt like he had Elvis’ best interests at heart, it only damaged Presley in the long run, as the film had the potential to be his opus.
Warner Brothers and Streisand’s First Artists production company offered Elvis $500,000 plus 10% of net profits and the opportunity camp to produce and keep the gate receipts from concerts filmed for the picture. The filmmakers also wanted to keep the rights to the music and soundtrack album. In response, The Colonel asked for a $1million salary and 50% of the gross profits. He also wanted $100,000 in expenses, approval on the songs and a percentage of the soundtrack, which was duly rejected.
After Parker priced his client out of the film, Kris Kristofferson took up the lead role, and A Star Is Born became the second highest-grossing film of 1976. Additionally, the film won five Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture, and the theme, ‘Evergreen’ also took home the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song and the Grammy for ‘Song of the Year’. Meanwhile, Elvis’ career continued to decline.
