Elvis is in the building on Oct. 1, 2021, the date set by Warner Bros. for Baz Luhrmann’s untitled Elvis Presley biopic.
The studio announced the date on Friday, three weeks after setting Austin Butler as the star. The studio tested with a handful of actors in full hair and make-up at the end of June to see who would join Tom Hanks, who is playing Presley’s manager, Col. Tom Parker.
Luhrmann co-wrote the script with Craig Pearce. The movie covers on the relationship between the veteran manager and the young singer, who was born in 1935 to a poor family in the small town of Tupelo, Miss. Presley broke out in 1956 with “Heartbreak Hotel.”
The project marks Luhrmann’s first film since his adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He most recently worked on the Netflix series “The Get Down.” The plan is to shoot at the top of 2020 to accommodate Hanks’ schedule. Paramount has dated an untitled Hasbro event film for the same date in 2021.
Warner Bros. also announced that it is moving Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” back a month to from Nov. 20, 2020, to Dec. 18., 2020, when it will compete against “Coming to America 2,” Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” and Sony’s “Uncharted.”
Based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name, the film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Stephen Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem.