Elvis direcror Baz Lurhmann has confirmed plans to release a concert cut of the film, featuring Austin Butler’s live performances.
Lurhmann shared the news with IndieWire at the 2022 Gotham Awards.
“It’s a directors’ assembly. It’s not a cut,” he said. “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].”
He continued: “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.
“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.”
In an interview with ScreenRant, Lurhmann said that fans had been crying out for a longer cut of the film.
“I tell you what, all my tweets are nothing but ‘We want the four-hour version! We want the four-hour version!’” he said. “I think people are at my gates with pitchforks saying, ‘We want the four-hour version!’”
He added: “But I don’t close my mind to the idea that there would be an extended cut. Right now, with how long it’s stayed in the theatres and how well it’s done, it’s crossed the line. But it’s done so well on HBO Max over the weekend, so it’s about the parent company going, ‘Wow, it’s really worth spending the money.’”
Butler previously detailed how the concerts were performed as authentically as possible, with the actor even remaining in character and entertaining the audience between takes.
In NME‘s four-star review of Elvis, we wrote: “The ‘Moulin Rouge!’ director serves up a big-screen epic we can’t help falling in love with.|
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