Making a film featuring Elvis Presley so soon after Austin Butler dazzled as the King of Rock & Roll feels premature, but Sofia Coppola thinks Jacob Elordi is up to the task.
As per Deadline, the Euphoria star has been cast in the director’s upcoming film Priscilla, which definitely isn’t a sequel to Baz Lurhmann’s recent biopic, in case you were quite fairly wondering.
Coppola’s project is based on Elvis and Me, Priscilla Presley’s memoir, which details her relationship with the legendary singer. Priscilla will be played by Cailee Spaeny, who’s recently impressed in Mare of Easttown and The First Lady.
Coppola seems a strong choice to helm Priscilla, having previously made the wonderful Lost in Translation, a film about a relationship with a large age gap; Elvis and Priscilla infamously first met when he was 24 and she was just 14. After a courtship, the couple married in 1967 and had their only child, Lisa Marie Presley, the following year. The couple split in 1973 after several fraught years of marriage.
With Butler rightly garnering a lot of Oscar talk for his portrayal of Elvis, Elordi will have to really impress in the role. Judging by his recent, um, memorable GQ profile, he’ll be attacking the role with fervour. “Someone has said that every human being is capable of murder, and I like to think of that a lot when I’m (working),” he confusingly told the magazine.
Maybe that’s what reportedly made Elordi Coppola’s number one choice to play Elvis. Rumours started earlier this week about Justin Bieber being one of the early targets for the role, but a source informed Billboard that the pop star was never actually considered for the film. Production on Priscilla is expected to begin production later this year.
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