Tom Hanks, who signed on to star as Colonel Tom Parker in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Elvis Presley biopic, gave a brief update on the project this week. Since there is still no actor attached to play the King, filming will not start until next year, the Toy Story 4 star said. He also opened up about the research going into his performance.
“That’s a ways away. That’ll be sometime next year,” Hanks said while on BBC Radio’s Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review of the new film.
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When asked who will play Presley, Hanks said he had no idea.
“I am not in that loop. I am operating solely on what I know of the whole Elvis legend,” Hanks said, notes Express. “Honestly, all I know is we hope to do it next year. But I’m just in the collecting phase right now.”
Hanks said read Peter Guralnick’s two-part Presley biography, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love, for research.
“I’ve read both of those and… Let me just go back a little bit, my make-up man, Danny Striepeke – who did my make-up, for I think, 17 films – had done Elvis on, among others, Viva Las Vegas… and Harum Sacrum and Kissin’ Cousins,” Hanks said. “So he had made some really lousy Elvis movies.”
Hanks said Striepeke shared stories about Presley and Parker, explaining, “So I was a little bit hip to what that union was… that odd kinda like… Mephistophelian bargain…”
Parker, who was actually born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk in the Netherlands and was not a real military colonel, helped groom Presley to stardom during the 1950s. He oversaw Presley’s contracts and public image, and their relationship continued until the early 1970s. He died in 1997 at age 87.
Hanks was cast in the role back in March, when Variety reported the casting. According to the outlet, Luhrmann was looking for a big star to cast as Parker and a newcomer to play Presley, which could be a disappointment to Adam Lambert.
In an interview with an Australian radio show, the American Idol singer said he might be interested in the movie.
“I have been compared to him quite a bit,” Lambert said, adding, “I got the lip, the lip goes up.”
The project will be filmed in Luhrmann’s native Australia at Village Roadshow Studios in Queensland. It will be the Moulin Rogue! filmmaker’s long-awaited follow-up to 2013’s The Great Gatsby. His most recent project, Netflix’s The Get Down, was canceled after one season.
As for Hanks, he voiced Woody once again for Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 4, which is now in theaters. He also finished the Fred Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which hits theaters on Nov. 22, 2019. He also completed the World War II movie Greyhound, which opens on May 8, 2020.
