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Despite mixed reviews from critics, he believes a 12-minute standing ovation at the film’s Cannes premiere is a prelude to box-office success.<\/p>\n
Luhrmann clearly worn out by his own big sell, and acknowledges his trademark style may not be for everyone.<\/p>\n
“If you’re trying to watch it in a disconnected way, a political way, you’re probably not going to have much truck with it, but it’s designed to go to the mind through the heart, not the other way around,” he said.<\/p>\n
It’s an open question whether his decision to tell Elvis’ story\u00a0through the lens of his exploitative manager\u00a0Colonel Tom Parker – Tom Hanks – gets that job done.<\/p>\n
Parker\u00a0bled Elvis for every cent he could to feed a gambling addiction, and while the Presleys were fond of him, according to Hanks,\u00a0Parker is ultimately a villain.<\/p>\n
“What he was not was a true manager. He was a promoter. He saw Elvis as being a way to bottle lightning and make a ton of money if they did it right,” Hanks said.<\/p>\n
Elvis began filming on the Gold Coast in January 2020, but was shut down after six weeks when Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson contracted COVID-19.<\/p>\n
Front page news at the time, it marked the moment Australians realised the virus was coming, because if the world’s cinematic everyman could catch it, no-one was safe.<\/p>\n
“You’re welcome, by the way.” Hanks laughs now. “Happy to do that for you.”<\/p>\n
It was six months before shooting resumed, and by that time much of the US cast had been replaced by Australians, creating about 1000 jobs at a time when local performing arts had shut up shop.<\/p>\n
Returning to the Gold Coast for the red carpet premiere has been especially strange for Butler, who now has the spotlight firmly on him.<\/p>\n
“I just saw the beach that I used to walk up and down listening to Elvis interviews for hours; it’s surreal being back,” he said.<\/p>\n
He is looking to the likes of\u00a0Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt to figure out how to keep working amid the kind of fame that undid Elvis himself.<\/p>\n
Of course,\u00a0Tom Hanks has some thoughts too.<\/p>\n
“The streets are littered with an awful lot of people that ran into this thing called celebrity…\u00a0a white hot attention spotlight is an artificial place to live,” Hanks said.<\/p>\n
“As long as you know it’s an odd place to live… it just goes along with the territory. I think it’ll be okay.”<\/p>\n
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