How Newly Found Footage Became ‘EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert’

Baz Luhrmann first heard about a treasure trove of unused film while researching his 2022 biopic "Elvis." That lead turned into a multiyear rescue and restoration effort that became the documentary "EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert," which opens in IMAX theaters across the country on Friday.

Luhrmann paid to have researchers search a Kansas salt‑mine storage vault and they uncovered 69 boxes of footage—35‑millimeter film shot during Vegas performances and 16‑millimeter backstage and onstage material. Much was mislabeled, damaged or missing sound; the film amounted to about 59 hours of picture with no synced audio.

The project advanced after the team found an audio‑only interview in which Presley spoke candidly about his life, a discovery that helped Luhrmann and editor Jonathan Redmond decide against a straightforward concert film or conventional documentary. They instead fashioned a hybrid: part concert film, part bio‑doc and part imagined "dreamscape" in which Elvis appears to sing and tell a story in his own voice.

United States, Kansas

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