‘Elvis’ Helmer Baz Luhrmann Makes First-Look Deal With Warner Bros. Pictures After 8 Oscar Nominations

As Warner Bros Pictures continues to move forward under new management, the studio secured a cornerstone filmmaker on Thursday, signing a first-look deal with its Elvis director-writer-producer Baz Luhrmann.

The deal was made by Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy. This comes on the heels of eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture that the film received Tuesday. Already the top-grossing original film in the Oscar crop with $151 million domestic and $287 million worldwide — the second-highest musical biopic gross worldwide — Elvis is poised to build that number further as the film returns to theaters across North America this weekend for a limited engagement.

According to Deadline, “the result is particularly satisfying in that it was the first major movie to be pulled offline at the start of the COVID pandemic; it fades in memory, but Tom Hanks was the first major movie star to come down with the virus days before shooting Hanks recovered, and soon every production in Hollywood shuttered as the world self-quarantined. Luhrmann held the production together, and the downtime allowed him to hone the film further and for Best Actor nominee Austin Butler to live in the skin of the iconic Presley for a long time.”

Elvis told the story of Rock and Roll icon Elvis Presley and his meteoric rise to fame. It gave the public a look at the wild and turbulent life of the King of Rock and Roll lead, including his relationship with his mother, his drug addiction, his conflict with Tom Hanks’ The Colonel, and his tragic final days. It also tells the story of Colonel Tom Parker, or as he was famously referred to as “The colonel,” as the film is framed from his perspective.

Tom Hanks was the first major movie star to come down with the covid virus days before shooting the film. Hanks made a full recovery, and soon every production in Hollywood breathed a sigh of relief as the world continued to self-quarantined. Luhrmann held the production together, and the downtime allowed him to hone the film further and for Best Actor nominee Austin Butler to live in the skin of the iconic Presley long enough to deliver a juggernaut performance.