How ‘Elvis’ Shook Its Way Back Into Production From Covid – Cannes Studio

“We were six days from starting principal,” says Tom Hanks about the Elvis production before it was shut down after he came down with Covid back in early 2020.

Hanks was one of the first notable Hollywood stars to endure and beat what was then an enigmatic virus, as Deadline first told you.

“No one knew what the hell it was,” exclaims Baz Luhrmann about Covid, “All I remember is guys in HazMat suits.”

However, the long break per Hanks, who plays notorious Elvis Presley manager Colonel Tom Parker in the film, was “a bit of a divine providence to refocus and rethink.”

“And Austin (Butler) had to work a few more months on his movements, his voice and singing,” adds the 2x Oscar winner.

As Luhrmann and Hanks tell us in our recent studio interview with them, the former took the opportunity to rework the screenplay during the production’s downtime.

“I think I cracked this contract between the Colonel and the way he tells it, and allowing us that it’s the Colonel’s telling,” explains Luhrmann.

“We had turned the Colonel into a man who had been saying ‘No, no, no’ into a man who said ‘Yes’. ‘You want to fire me?’ Yes. ‘You want to go around the world?’ Yes,” Hanks says.

It was an emotional moment for Luhrmann when his leading man Butler decided to stick around in Australia during the film’s off time; and not head back to the U.S..

Butler remembered, “I’m going to lose momentum, I need to stay, this is my time to have uninterrupted preparation.”

When cameras returned to rolling, Luhrmann says that the production was “the smoothest, the most on-time shooting I’ve ever done.”

Elvis received the longest standing ovation of any premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year, a stellar ten minutes. The movie opens on June 24.

Watch our interview above on how Luhrmann and Hanks decided it was time to return to production with Elvis. 

Aero is the official sponsor of the Deadline Studio at Cannes Film Festival, sponsors are Soia & Kyo and Jamones Iberico from Spain: Ambassadors of Europe in the World.