It turns out Elvis has not left the building.
After receiving the glitzy (and unintentionally hilarious) biopic treatment from Baz Luhrmann earlier this year, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll—and, presumably, his gyrating hips —will be gracing the silver screen once again in a new Sofia Coppola movie.
Deadline revealed the first details about the film in a Monday post. The Oscar-winning filmmaker is set to write and direct Priscilla, based on the memoir Elvis and Me by Presley’s iconic ex-spouse Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. The movie will star 25-year-old actress Cailee Spaeny, who’s appeared in Pacific Rim: Uprising and Bad Times at the El Royale, in the titular role. None other than Euphoria star and famously Tortured and Serious Actor Jacob Elordi will take on the apparently extremely taxing role of Elvis Presley.
Priscilla will mark Coppola’s seventh directorial feature and third collaboration with production company A24 following 2013’s The Bling Ring and 2020’s On The Rocks. Given the notable success—and scrutiny—of Coppola’s last biopic, Marie Antoinette, the film could possibly be one of the auteur’s buzziest and most controversial projects to date.
Likewise, the announcement of a new Coppola joint and yet another Elvis movie has already garnered mixed reactions on Twitter. Coppola stans (like moi) have been anxiously waiting for the director to announce a new project since On The Rocks, and stories on female adolescence have always been her speciality. However, the Austin Butler Army on social media doesn’t seem too happy with Nate from Euphoria throwing his hat into the Elvis ring.
On @FilmUpdates’ tweet about the film, one user commented that “following up Austin is suicide.” A slew of other Butler fans are currently flooding the quote tweets with clips of the actor and Olivia DeJonge, who played Butler’s Priscilla in Elvis.
Butler garnered plenty of praise (and mockery) for his impression of the “Burning Love” singer in Elvis. And who can forget his weird obsession with speaking in Presley's voice throughout the press tour? Likewise, it’ll be interesting to see if Elordi, who said he read about Elvis after seeing the trailer to Luhrmann’s film in a GQ profile, can match Butler’s ridiculous method acting on and off-screen. Given how seriously Elordi took his character in Netflix’s The Kissing Booth, it seems like some overly intense on-set stories are on the horizon.
If anything, we can assume he’ll do a better Elvis than Justin Bieber.
