When it comes to big-screen superheroes, Baz Luhrmann is here to show you that there’s nobody bigger than Elvis Presley. The just-released first trailer for the Australian director’s highly-anticipated musical biopic presents Presley’s rocket-like trajectory toward musical superstardom as a Superman-like origin story with Austin Butler playing the King of Rock and Roll instead of the Man of Steel. (Watch the trailer above.)
Early on in the three-minute teaser, young Elvis is glimpsed reading a Captain Marvel comic, and then running around with a hand-sewn lightning bolt on his own chest. And when he steps up to rock the mic for the first time as an adult, he blows the audience back with his super-powered sound. It certainly makes a big impression on the man watching quietly in the back: Col. Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks. “In that moment, I watched that skinny boy transform into a superhero,” he notes in a broad Southern twang.
In real life, of course, Parker is remembered as more of a Lex Luthor figure in Elvis’s life rather than a Jonathan Kent. And it appears that Luhrmann will address that perception head-on, as Hanks’s voiceover narration mentions that he’s often considered to be the “villain” of the story. But looking at Presley’s hip-swiveling performance, Col. Tom only sees one thing: destiny.
Luhrmann’s narrative spans twenty years in the lives of its superman and supervillain, encompassing Presley’s time in the army, his movie star career and the shift in pop culture that accompanies the rise of the civil rights movement. Fans of Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge are sure to recognize his typically turbocharged camerawork and lavish period detail in the production design and costumes, brought to life as always by his wife and collaborator, Catherine Martin.
But on Twitter at least, all eyes are on Butler’s transformation into Elvis, which is already winning rave reviews.
I like the scene where a bunch of girls don’t realize Austin Butler is hot until he starts convulsing.
— Lenny Burnham – abolish ICE, abolish police (@lennyburnham) February 17, 2022
Elvis premieres June 24 in theaters
