It’s one for the money – Baz Luhrmann’s new Elvis doco
Baz Luhrmann thought his Elvis journey was over until he came across a stash of unseen footage and interviews which became the basis for a fascinating new documentary about the King of Rock and Roll.
It’s a Saturday night at HOTA on the Gold Coast and Baz Luhrmann is standing in front of a packed cinema. At the recent AACTA Festival, the premiere of EPiC, his ambitious new Elvis Presley concert documentary, wrapped to a rapturous, sold-out crowd and the famed Australian director is still riding the emotional surge of seeing the film with an audience for the first time on home soil.
“I didn’t expect that reaction at all,” Luhrmann admits, slightly stunned. “I’d only seen it play in Toronto before. But something happens when people in the seats forget they’re watching a movie and start feeling like they’re actually at a concert. That’s the most fulfilling thing you can accomplish with a film like this.”
EPiC is not your traditional rock documentary. Nor is it simply a concert film. Instead, Luhrmann has created a sweeping, immersive cinematic experience built around some rare and previously unseen footage of Elvis Presley performing during his peak touring years. It’s a project that Luhrmann insists almost never existed.
“This was completely accidental,” he says with a laugh. “It began when I was making Elvis – the narrative film. There was talk about these rumoured lost reels of concert footage. I thought maybe there’d be a few shots we could use as background or reference material.”
What followed sounds like the opening act of an Indiana Jones sequel.
“All of MGM’s old film footage is stored deep underground in Kansas City in salt mines to protect it from moisture,” Luhrmann explains. “We sent people down there to look, not expecting much. Then they kicked open this dusty storage room and found 67 boxes labelled Elvis – That’s The Way It Is, Elvis On Tour and more. It was like discovering buried treasure.”
The find delivered pristine visual footage – but there was a catch.
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“We had picture, but no sound,” Luhrmann says. “And once word leaked out that this footage existed, fans started demanding it be released. Letters, social media, everything. We realised we couldn’t just put it back in the vault.”
What followed was a painstaking two-year global search to reconstruct the audio, sometimes involving unlikely encounters.
“There’s a lot of bootleg Elvis material out there,” Luhrmann says with a wry nod. “Let’s just say there were moments where we were meeting collectors in car parks trying to track down original recordings. It sounds exaggerated, but it really happened.”
The restoration effort became a massive technical and artistic undertaking. Some recordings were salvaged from original stage audio, while other sections required meticulous reconstruction.
“There were tracks where microphones had failed or orchestration recordings were corrupted,” Luhrmann explains. “So in some cases, we worked with gospel choirs in Nashville to re-imagine elements of performances. We weren’t trying to fake history — we were trying to honour what Elvis was creating emotionally and spiritually.”
The real breakthrough moment for EPiC, however, came when Luhrmann uncovered something far more revealing than lost concert audio – a previously unheard 50-minute tape of Elvis speaking candidly about his life.
“That changed everything,” Luhrmann says. “Elvis was famously guarded in interviews. But on this tape, he’s completely unfiltered. He talks about his experiences, his fears, his beliefs. That’s when I realised this film needed to let Elvis tell his own story.”
Luhrmann built the documentary around that concept – Presley narrating his own journey through performance and reflection.
‘when he stepped into performance, he transformed into one of the most magnetic artists in history’
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“I imagined Elvis inviting the audience into his personal performance space,” he says. “Whenever Elvis couldn’t say something directly, he sang it. So, the songs become his emotional autobiography.”
That emotional vulnerability, Luhrmann believes, is key to understanding Presley’s enduring power.
“I’ve always felt there was this incredibly sensitive and insecure human being off stage,” he says. “But when he stepped into performance, he transformed into one of the most magnetic artists in history. That contrast fascinated me.”
Luhrmann recounts conversations with people who knew Presley personally, including childhood friend Sam Bell who described a young Elvis growing up in poverty and wrestling with feelings of shame about his family’s struggles.
“They told me Elvis was extraordinarily kind,” Luhrmann says. “They said he would call their grandparents ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ – something they’d (as Black Americans) never experienced from a White child in that era. Those stories stayed with me.”
“We tried to let empathy and kindness flow through the film. Songs like Walk a Mile in My Shoes aren’t just performances. They’re statements about who Elvis was as a person.”
Despite the film’s massive archival scope, Luhrmann describes the creative process as one of the most enjoyable of his career.
“I didn’t have to worry about casting or creating a star,” he says. “I had the greatest performer in music history already at the centre. My job was simply to get out of the way.”
The project also brought together Baz’s trusted creative team, including composer Elliott Wheeler, whose score was recorded on the Gold Coast.
“It was incredible,” Luhrmann says. “We’d be working in the studio surrounded by kangaroos outside. That’s about as Australian as filmmaking gets.”
Now Luhrmann is going on an international promotional tour that he jokingly describes as “the world tour Elvis never had”.
“Elvis famously never toured internationally during his lifetime,” he says. “This film is our way of letting his performance finally travel the world.”
While Luhrmann insists EPiC is only one interpretation of Presley’s legacy, he admits the King of Rock and Roll has permanently altered his creative life.
“I thought making Elvis would close that chapter,” he says, “but now I realise he’ll probably never leave me creatively — and honestly, that feels like a privilege.”
EPiC opens in cinemas on February 19.
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