Baz Luhrmann on EPiC, lost Elvis footage, and an unmade Alexander film

Baz Luhrmann has built his career on bold, theatrical filmmaking — from a modern take on Romeo and Juliet to the jukebox spectacle of Moulin Rouge! — and his 2022 Elvis biopic, which earned eight Oscar nominations, continued that imprint. He grew up in Herons Creek, New South Wales, watching Elvis movies at matinees, begging his grandmother for an Elvis jumpsuit and dancing to Presley hits, a childhood obsession that helped shape the 2022 film starring Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker and Austin Butler as Elvis.

Luhrmann returned to Presley with EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, a project built around never-before-seen archival material. Crews recovered 65 reels from salt mines and combined footage from Presley’s early-1970s tour and Vegas residency with some 40 minutes of previously unheard interviews.

Editor Jon Redmond urged that the reels not be returned to storage, and the team set out to craft a work that is part concert film, part autobiography. Putting the film together proved technically and legally complex.

Australia, Herons Creek, New South Wales

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