Austin Butler shakes and shimmies in the new trailer for Baz Luhrmann's Elvis

Butler stars as the rock 'n' roll legend opposite Tom Hanks

By Gabrielle Sanchez  |  May 23, 2022 | 7:11pm
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Austin Butler shakes and shimmies in the new trailer for Baz Luhrmann's Elvis
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Austin Butler in Elvis Screenshot: Warner Bros. Pictures

Ahead of its Cannes Film Festival premiere, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis has another trailer. This time around, the trailer looks deeper into the scandalous side of Elvis Presley (played by Austin Butler), and how his manager Tom Parker (as performed by Tom Hanks) used the mania to make him a star.

In the opening of the trailer we see Butler as Elvis defiantly shimmy a finger on stage, stoking the flames of controversy. His stage performances send shockwaves across the country, as folks denounce the depravity of his hip movements. People want to put the man down, but dammit! He was born to wiggle and shimmy and shake! Butler really delivers on his performance of the young Elvis, which has been given the stamp of approval by those who knew Presley.

The Great Gatsby’s Baz Luhrmann wrote Elvis alongside Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner. Lurhmann directs the film which also stars Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla Presley, Dacre Montgomery as Steve Binder, David Wenham as Hank Snow, and The Power Of The Dog’s Kodi Smit-McPhee as singer-songwriter Jimmie Rodgers.

Actor Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis, recently viewed the feature with Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley. During Cannes’ Women In Motion discussion, she described watching Elvis as a “very emotional experience,” admitting she cried throughout the screening.

“In the first five minutes, I could feel how much work Baz and Austin put into trying to get it right. That made me emotional immediately,” Keough said. “I started crying five minutes in and didn’t stop. There’s a lot of family trauma and generational trauma that started around then for our family. I felt honored they worked so hard to really get his essence, to feel his essence. Austin captured that so beautifully.”

Elvis premieres in theaters on June 24, before arriving on HBO Max 45 days later.

 
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