Elvis In The Making

Director Baz Luhrman, writer/director/producer of the marvellous Elvis (2022) film, has a new Elvis project in the making! We are overjoyed because we've been waiting for an official release of the hours of unseen footage of Elvis' two thrilling rockumentaries for over half a century. It's not that we've not been asking, we have, but to no avail. 

Fortunately for Elvis fans, it seems Lurhman not only gave most fans joy with his 2022 film, but also got a new generation PLUS himself hooked on Elvis. 

According to Baz the film will neither be a documentary nor a concert film, so how it will look like is a mystery. The contents, however, is from unreleased footage of Elvis: That's The Way It Is (1970) and Elvis On Tour (1972). 

Baz recently announced on social media: We HAVE found the footage. We found it, and a lot of it, and sound ... inside, where they were storing it. I will do that extra concert film. 

When Baz was asked if he's seen the footage, he replied: Oh, I've seen a lot of it. It's extraordinary what's there. It shocked even me what is there. And, more importantly, we have the SOUND.

A trailer of this exciting announcement has been released. At long last, it seems the decades long dream of many an Elvis fan may come true.   

Diane McBain

Diane McBain was best known for her part in the 1966 Elvis movie, Spinout, one of my Top 3 Elvis feature films. She played the role of an author who was in the process of writing her new book, titled The Perfect American Male.

McBain, who was 6 years younger than Elvis, said that Elvis was charming and a lovely person to work with. She appreciated that Elvis didn't come on to her, because so many men did throughout her career in Hollywood.

McBain reminisced: We had a really nice friendship on set. He was a spiritual guy, and he love to read anything about being spiritual. I, too was fascinated by those things. So we bonded over that. We used to exchange books on set and we would have conversations all the time about being spiritual. Elvis really wanted to be taken seriously as an actor. He had a lot of trouble trying to convince them into putting him in more serious roles. He embraced our film beautifully and he did a great job on set. He was, of course, very special but I don't think he saw himself that way.

Ed

American actor Ed Asner was most famous for his role as a newspaper editor in the TV series Lou Grant.  But to Elvis fans he is best-known for appearing in Elvis' only sport film Kid Galahad (as Assistant District Attorney Frank Gerson) and in Elvis' last feature film, the crime drama Change of Habit (as police Lieutenant Moretti).

Asner, in an interview, said the following about working with Elvis:

He was a good guy. I liked him a lot. The first film was 'Kid Galahad'. Elvis was going through his karate phase, so his fingers were all being broken and busy breaking bricks and boards. And the second film was 'Change of Habit' with Mary Tyler Moore. He had become a different person by then, he was becoming an actor. And once again, he didn't screw up, didn't make a mess, didn't foul any nest, and showed up and did his work as best he could. He was not a problem maker.

Jailhouse Rock

Last Saturday afternoon we got together to watch, listen and talk Elvis! We had great fun. The film Jailhouse Rock was spotlighted in our film series The Elvis Award Nominated Films. 

Did you know Jailhouse Rock has received an 

1. ASCAP for Most Performed Feature Film Standard for the title song (1991)
2. induction into the NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVES REGISTRY as a film of Cultural/Historical/Aesthetic significance (2004)

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Last Saturday we got together to watch, listen and talk Elvis! What a great afternoon we had. The film Girls! Girls! Girls! was spotlighted in our series The Award Nominated Films. 

Did you know this film received a total of 4 award nominations? In 1963 the Elvis musical/comedy Girls! Girls! Girls! was nominated for a:

1. Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical

2. Laurel Award for Top Male Star

3. Laurel Award for Top Musical (3rd Place WIN)

4. Laurel Award for Top Male Musical Performance (2nd Place WIN)

A Star Is Born - A Missed Opportunity For Elvis?

The Premise

 

The story goes that in 1975 Barbra Streisand offered Elvis the role of the leading man in A Star Is Born, a movie she was about to make, but that the deal was nixed by our old friend Colonel Tom Parker - either on the basis that Streisand was getting star billing over 'his boy', alternatively that there was not enough money involved. 

It seems in retrospect that Elvis was in fact not all that concerned about the money, but had hoped that a part in a movie with a super-star such as Streisand would have given his career a boost. In the event the role went to Kris Kristofferson. 

Until quite recently I had not had an opportunity to see the movie but managed to catch it on TCM the other day, and thought it might be an interesting exercise to examine to what extent Elvis might just have missed a trick here.  

The Plot

The film is the story of two singers, one on his way down (Kristofferson), the other on her way up (Streisand). After one of his concerts Kristofferson goes into a night-club where Streisand is singing. He