First ‘Elvis’ Trailer Debuts, Baz Luhrmann and Austin Butler Reveal How They Resurrected the King (Video)

thewrap.com:

above), alongside a virtual Q&A with Luhrmann and Butler, moderated by the great Nelson George. Before the trailer even ran, Luhrmann talked about how he loved the artform of the preview. “Trailers are doors that open up onto a movie,” Luhrmann said.

He also stressed, from the get-go, that “Elvis” was, “number one, a movie for theaters.”When discussing his Elvis movie, he said it’s actually about America. “’Amadeus’ – it’s not really about Mozart, it’s about jealousy,” Luhrmann said. “In this modern era, Elvis couldn’t have been a better canvas to explore America in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.” (Elvis died in 1977.) For Butler, the appeal was equally grand – “fundamentally getting to explore the humanity of somebody who has become the wallpaper of society.” He admitted that these were “huge shoes to fill,” he was able to go on a journey with Elvis, saying that he was cast when he was 26 and he’s 30 now.And then, of course, there are the musical numbers. “When I began the process of this, I wanted to get my voice to sound identical to his,” Butler said.

And Luhrmann said that the young Elvis songs are all Butler; when he gets older there are some blending of material, with both Butler and Presley in the mix (literally).

Early recordings, Luhrmann said, were “nostalgia-sounding.” Re-playing them would be “a photocopy of a performance of a record.”For Luhrmann, he was struck, while watching early Presley performances, that “there was something real punk rock.” The question became, how do you “translate strange and shocking to a contemporary audience” that has seen it all.