 The most recent film to focus on Elvis Presley's life and career is Baz Lerman's Elvis. The film, which features Tom Hanks' Colonel Tom Parker and Austin Butler as Elvis Presley, is recounted from Parker's point of view, from his discovery of Presley as a teenager until their deaths. Though there are some discrepancies between the film and reality, since the film had to condense Presley's life into two hours and forty-nine minutes, several events had to be combined or completely made up for dramatic effect. For his audition tape, Austin Butler originally recorded himself singing Love Me Tender. When he watched it, he felt like it was an Elvis impersonation and refused to submit it. A few days later, he had a nightmare that his deceased mother was dying again. Overwhelmed with grief, he decided to pour his emotion into music. Thinking of the lyrics to Unchained Melody, he remembered, I always take it for granted that that's to a romantic partner, but what if I sing that to my mom? He sat down on the piano in his bathrobe and filmed it, and the way of channeling those emotions just felt true, the actor said. The video immediately caught Baz Lerman's attention as he was both confused and intrigued. Lerman stated, was it an audition or was he having a breakdown? The director expressed that the audition felt like a spy cam. Lerman asked to meet with Butler and eventually gave him the part. Austin Butler and Elvis Presley are actually 16th cousins twice removed. Elvis's father, Vernon Presley and Austin's mother, Lori, share common ancestry. The basic premise of the Elvis comeback special, seen in this film, is basically true. Elvis was appalled that Colonel Tom Parker had agreed with the sponsor and the NBC TV network that he would do an hour-long special, in which he would be doing cheesy skits and singing Christmas songs in a terrible sweater. So he effectively plotted with director Steve Binder and producer Bob Finkel to do a special showcasing his career. Rehearsals started in June 1968, with filming commencing in late June 1968. Elvis, Binder, and Finkel did as much as they could to keep Parker out of the studio during recordings. This move worked. Although four hours of footage was shot, it was finally edited down to 50 minutes. The show aired on December 3rd, 1968, to huge success. It was the number one most watched TV show that week in the US. Austin Butler does his own singing and dancing as young Elvis. From the 1968 special onwards, he dubs Elvis' original performances. Even though his hair was dyed dark brown and he wore dark brown or jet black wigs in some scenes, Austin Butler is a natural blonde. Elvis Presley, who was known to have dark brown or jet black hair, was also a natural blonde. Austin Butler stated that one of the aspects about Elvis Presley that stood out to him was that he and Elvis lost his mother at a young age. Both men were 23 years old when their mothers passed away. Austin felt that shared pain with Elvis and used his grief in his performance. Out of all of the outfits he's worn in the film, Austin Butler kept the black leather comeback outfit. Butler stated, that was a big one for me. It was a monumental time, so I took one of those. RCA purchased Elvis Presley's contract from Sam Phillips and Sun Studio for $35,000 which, at the time, made it the largest amount ever paid by a record label for a contract. Even Elvis, Phillips and Sun were always on the brink of debt because Phillips didn't have the means necessary to cut records at a constant pace as a larger record company. The $35,000 was a financial windfall that kept Sun in business for years and helped Phillips launch other notable Sun stars like Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and others. Today, like Graceland, Sun Studio remains open in Memphis, Tennessee as a national landmark. The scene where Elvis is seen putting a Derringer pistol into his boot during his Las Vegas show is true. He started doing this after receiving death threats. In total, while portraying Elvis Presley, Austin Butler wore 90 costumes throughout the film. According to director Baz Lerman, there's a four hour cut of the film that exists. It remains to be seen whether or not this cut will ever be released. While doing press for the movie, Austin Butler still had a bit of a Southern accent that he used to portray Elvis Presley. In an interview, Butler said that because he spent so much time preparing and filming the movie, when he's in front of a lot of people, there's a trigger and the accent just comes out. While director Baz Lerman was going over auditions, including Austin Butler's audition for the role of Elvis Presley, Denzel Washington called the director to recommend Butler. Washington and Butler had co-starred in a play called The Iceman Cometh. The former actor mentioned the latter interestingly. Washington and Lerman had not met before when the actor made the call. Washington tells Lerman, you're in for a surprise when you see the work ethic of this young man. During his later years, Elvis Presley would often collaborate with the R&B Gospel group The Sweet Inspirations. The group was founded by Sissy Houston and her sister, Lee Warwick. Sissy is the mother of Whitney Houston. Whitney would go on to become an award-winning singer and would have her biggest hit I Will Always Love You, which was written and initially sung by Dolly Parton. Elvis wanted to record the song and Dolly was willing to allow him to record it. Unfortunately, Colonel Tom Parker told her for Elvis to record the song, she would have to relinquish the song's rights. She refused. Despite Elvis's evangelical Christian upbringing in the Deep South, his mother, Gladys Presley, was of distant Jewish descent. She even gave him the Hebrew middle name Aaron to acknowledge this. Elvis himself was aware that he was partly Jewish, and when his mother died, he asked for the tombstone to have a star of David carved onto it to honor his mother. When production moved to Australia, Tom Hanks sent Austin Butler a chrome typewriter. Attached to the typewriter was a note. Hanks had written the note as Colonel Tom Parker. In response, Butler used the typewriter to write a note back to Hanks as Elvis Presley. The two actors ended up sending letters back and forth. Butler stated that it was an amazing way to rehearse. In addition to Austin Butler, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Aaron Taylor Johnson, and Harry Styles auditioned and tested for the role of Elvis Presley. Despite his slim appearance as a young man, Elvis had been a talented amateur boxer in his youth and even represented his school. This skill would come in handy during his film career, where he was frequently required to get involved in a brawl. Elvis's mother, Gladys Presley, died aged 46 in 1958. Although not seen in the film, Vernon Presley, Elvis's father, remarried in 1960. Vernon died of a heart attack in June 1979 at the age of 63, less than two years after his son. The film had a 12 minute standing ovation at the Cairns Film Festival after the screening was over. Although it's never alluded to in the film, Elvis was actually a huge fan of technology and was one of the first people in the U.S. to have an analog cell phone installed into his car and had one of the first Betamax video taper quarters in his home after they were introduced by Sony in 1975. The film was in development since 2014. Baz Lerman was chosen to direct after some negotiations. However, nothing further developed until 2019 when Tom Hanks was cast as Colonel Tom Parker. In an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Tom Hanks revealed that it took five hours to apply the makeup for his transformation into Colonel Tom Parker. The film makes out that Elvis's film career was over by the time he decided to do the Elvis Comeback Special. This is not true as he had three films released that year and another three released in 1969. However, after 1969, he never acted in another film. Elvis's mother, Gladys Pressley, was actually four years older than his father, Vernon Pressley. They were married in 1933 when Gladys was 21 and Vernon was about 17. As he was under the minimum age of 18 at the time, he simply lied about his age on the marriage license. In one scene, Elvis is shocked to learn of Sharon Tate's murder by members of Charles Manson's cult. Before doing this film, Austin Butler, who portrays Elvis Pressley, played Manson family members Charles Tex Watson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with Kurt Russell who not only played the king in Elvis 1979, but also appeared unbilled with Pressley in It Happened at the World's Fair, 1963. After wrapping up the filming of the movie, Austin Butler was rushed to the hospital where he'd been bedridden due to the virus which simulates appendicitis. Austin Butler and Olivia DeJeong's height match almost perfectly with Elvis Pressley and Priscilla Pressley. Butler is six foot and DeJeong is five three. Elvis was five 11 and three quarters and Priscilla was five four. Tom Hanks and Colonel Tom Parker on the other hand have the exact same height at six foot. Tom Hanks had previously played an Elvis impersonator and Elvis has left the building 2004. Before getting onto a plane toward the end of the film, Elvis turns to Priscilla and mouth the words, I will always love you. According to Dolly Parton, Elvis loved the song and wanted to record it. He invited Dolly to the studio. However, Colonel Parker called her the night before and told her that if Elvis was going to record the song, they would get half the publishing rights. Dolly had already had a number one hit with the song and refused to relinquish any rights. Which ended up being a smart move because in 1992, Whitney Houston drove it to number one for 14 weeks with Dolly still holding all the publishing rights. But Elvis never recorded the song and Dolly said she cried all that night from disappointment.