Elvis Director Wants To Turn Austin Butler Biopic Into A Miniseries (Despite Expecting Backlash)

Elvis director Baz Luhrmann wants to turn the Austin Butler biopic into a miniseries (even though he expects backlash). Luhrmann’s flashy musical-biopic take on the life of Elvis Presley was a sensation in the summer of 2022, grossing $288 million worldwide, and making a star out of its charismatic lead actor. The film went on to be nominated for 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, with a Best Actor nod going to Butler himself.

Now over a year after the Elvis movie made hay at the box office while earning critical accolades, director Luhrmann says he wants to reimagine the film as a miniseries, as he did with his 2008 movie Australia, even though he thinks the move would anger a lot of people. Speaking to CinemaBlend, Luhrmann laid out his plans to expand upon his 159-minute original film, likening the idea to a musician reinventing their own songs in different styles. Check out what he said below:

I really would love to do the episodic version of Elvis. And I’ll take a completely different storytelling style than I would if I’d done it for the cinema. Now, okay, why would I be so stupid? And why would I draw all the fire and brimstone down on myself like that? Well, like when an iconic, popular musician does a song and they perform it in concert and they do, you know, let’s say it’s a dance cut, they do a heavy metal version. I think of the dexterity of music, and the ability to take the same piece and reinterpret and rediscover. It keeps the artist engaged. But it also keeps decoding and recoding the story, (and) keeps it alive in the moment. So that’s why I would do it. And I think I would do it with Elvis.

Luhrmann’s Australia Miniseries Received Mixed Reviews (So Maybe He Should Leave Elvis Alone)

Luhrmann, as mentioned, is no stranger to reinventing his own movies as longer works, having previously recut his already sprawling 2008 Hugh Jackman-Nicole Kidman film Australia into a miniseries entitled Faraway Downs. Released in November on Hulu, Luhrmann’s expanded Australia has received largely mixed reviews, as reflected in its 50% score on Rotten Tomatoes (in fairness, the original film only received 54% on RT).

It might be fascinating to see what an expanded version of Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic would add to the theatrical film, which already feels stuffed full of biographical incident, and moves briskly despite its length. On the other hand, expanding upon the already-long Elvis could end up feeling like too much of a good thing. Given the huge success of the theatrical movie version, Luhrmann would likely have little trouble convincing a streamer to sign on for an Elvis miniseries. Faraway Downs may have been a critical failure, but Luhrmann seems undeterred in his belief that it’s worthwhile to revisit his movies in expanded form, giving them a second life beyond their original theatrical runs.