PT Entertainment
Austin Butler’s full performances as Elvis Presley — a fraction of which were captured in the Baz Luhrmann-directed Elvis biopic — will “one day” see the light of day, the director promised in a series of recent interviews.
Related: How to Watch Elvis Online
During the shooting of the film, Luhrmann staged full concerts with Butler as the King, with only a portion making the final cut. The much-rumored “director’s cut” of the film would restore the entire performance, which also featured Butler-as-Presley’s repartee with the crowd between takes.
“It’s a directors’ assembly. It’s not a cut,” Luhrmann told IndieWire. “There’s a whole lot of material that adds up to four hours… Austin did his concerts full out. He did all the numbers. Austin just did it, and it was an out-of-body experience to watch him do those full concerts, so one day, I will cut those full concerts together.”
However, Luhrmann caveated that he won’t start work on that until 2025, at the earliest, and that the edit alone would take four to six months from there.
“I thought it would be great for you guys to have the experience only we had, which is to watch Austin do the entire concert,” Luhrmann added in a recent Q&A (via Variety). “So I can’t say exactly when because I have got to get through this, but I can say one thing: there will be a day when we do that concert version.”
Butler, who’s currently filming Dune: Part Two, will next take the stage on Dec. 17 as the host of that night’s episode of Saturday Night Live.
