Sofia Coppola returns to the big screen with a biopic of Priscilla Presley. She wrote and directed the film which stars Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla and Jacob Elordi as Elvis.
"I’m excited to do something rooted in that Americana style for the first time. And Priscilla is a quintessential glamour icon," Coppola told Vogue last year. "I was just so interested in Priscilla’s story and her perspective on what it all felt like to grow up as a teenager in Graceland. She was going through all the stages of young womanhood in such an amplified world — kind of similarly to Marie Antoinette."
Here's everything we know so far about the film.
Priscilla will tell the romance of Priscilla and Elvis.
Priscilla was just 14 years old when she met Elvis at a party in Germany, when he was 23. They would marry six years later and have one child, Lisa Marie Presley.
A24 describes Priscilla as following: "When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend. Through Priscilla’s eyes, Sofia Coppola tells the unseen side of a great American myth in Elvis and Priscilla's long courtship and turbulent marriage, from a German army base to his dream-world estate at Graceland, in this deeply felt and ravishingly detailed portrait of love, fantasy, and fame."
The movie is based on Priscilla Presley's memoir.
In 1985, she authored Elvis and Me. The publisher describes the book as following: "Decades after his death, millions of fans continue to worship Elvis the legend. But very few knew him as Elvis the man. Here in her own words, Priscilla Presley tells the story of their love, revealing the details of their first meeting, their marriage, their affairs, their divorce, and the unbreakable bond that has remained long after his tragic death. A tribute to both the man and the legend, Elvis and Me gives Elvis fans the world over an unprecedented look at the true life of the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll and the woman who loved him."
Coppola said that "the hardest part of writing the script was just editing down so many incredible details from Priscilla’s memoir. I was interested in trying to imagine what growing up in that world must have looked like through her eyes." She added, "Not everything can be quite as epic as it was in Priscilla’s real life, so we have to recreate it in a crafty way."
It will be different than Baz Luhrmann's Elvis.
While comparisons are inevitable, Coppola said, "I loved how Baz approached his story in a very collage-y way, but I’m glad it didn’t go into much of Priscilla’s story because now I can really dive deep. I think Baz is so unique and his take on that story was so creative. But Priscilla is such a minor character in that film so I never felt like I was treading on the same territory. I love that people were so into his film about Elvis, and now in a few years, there’ll be another film about Priscilla. I think it’ll be interesting to have two completely different interpretations of the same events and time period."
There's no premiere date yet.
Watch the first teaser trailer here:
We'll update this as soon as we learn more.
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
