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Re: The Elvis Presley Thread
When I was a kid they had the Elvis Presley museum in Orlando. My dad had an office right above it and became real close with them. Priscilla actually gave my dad one of Elvis's TCB necklaces to thank him for some work he did for them in one of his Orlando tourism magazines.
Russ, you would have got a kick out of the place. As a kid I got to play in all Elvis's cars that were there, including the white race car from Spinout. This one...
Man, I loved that car.
Re: The Elvis Presley Thread
Not sure what to make of this just yet. I don't think anyone's ever done him justice outside of Kurt Russell and that only goes to 1970. Plus I'm not sure how they could cover his life in 2 hours.
I gotta be honest, the ONLY Elvis biopic that I ever liked was John Carpenter's "Elvis" with Kurt Russell. Not only did Russell play him the best of them all, but I enjoyed the slightly darker nature of it, for the time.
However even though I liked it (it's been years since i've seen it), I still don't think with all of the ones that were done, that a film has still been made yet that really did the life, true life, of Elvis - justice. Most films either cut off a the 68 comeback special, or just tell the story of the rise during the 50's, before going into the military.
Alot of people love the format of the Johnny Cash film Walk The Line. I still thought it was rather incomplete. True biopic's document the person's entire life.
Elvis really has always deserved a big script, with a big accomplished director, and about a 3 hour running time.
Re: The Elvis Presley Thread
And I just don't get that. Every top-legend music artist the ever existed did not have a clean image. It's just unreal, and frankly DE-humanizes them to NOT tell the accurate story. E becomes a vunerable, sympathetic character, if you give him a weakness - such as drug addiction. The irony of the whole thing is Elvis was abusing RX painkillers 40 fuckin' years before the rockers today that it makes me laugh at the absurdity of "cool" drug culture, who aren't near as inventive as they think. It was a running joke that E had like a roladex of doctors on the "paynroll" so to speak, years before MJ did it.
It's just what made him, him. I partly enjoyed his 70's performances MORE than classic Elvis in the 50's, because to me, Elvis was a fuckin' stud rockstar in the 70's. Burned out, drugged the fuck out, and still kicking ten tons of ass signing old negro spirtuals until 6 in the morning. It made him a bad ass to me, not a bad guy. I always thought it was cool.
The CBS Special film also went as far to show the more "batshit insane" side of Elvis that people had spoke of for years. This guy would obsess over the most inane stuff, then when the Malibu Mafia wanted to go home and be with their kids, Elvis would go into total fuckin' meltdown mode 25 years before Axl was crazy.
E did it all. Why not tell that?
John Lennon was an icon of drug culture-lite, many of Lennon's songs played around with "is he, or isn't he". Lennon's good guy image, yet having ties to early-terrorism and the Black Panther party, not to mention the anti-Vietnam movement made him a controversial character.
Michael Jackson was... come on. Probably THE most bizarre musical icon in history. Wacko fuckin' Jacko baby. He could bring you to tears in a song, yet the next moment want to shoot the mother fucker. The most popular alleged child molestor in history. The dude was walking controversy. Before that it was frozen babies and the elephant man.
Elvis falls right into the same category. For as much of being THE rockstar of all time, he also made poor career decisions, fistful pills before anyone, drank, neglected his family, created Priscilla in the image of his mother THEN wouldn't fuck her after she gave birth because he didn't want to be a mother fucker (seriously - Huh?), fucked more women than Satan... come on.
I just don't get it. Maybe I should hammer out a script and shop it. Does EPE Estate own his likeness? Could names be changed to protect the innocent, like on Dragnet?
Re: The Elvis Presley Thread
Actually I don't think so on the covers. I just saw an interview with Dolly Parton the other day, and Dolly told a story how Elvis was a big fan of her's and really liked her song "I Will Always Love You", and Elvis wanted to record it. But Col. Parker told Dolly that ALL, all songs (Dolly's words) that Elvis covered, Elvis/Parker purchased the songs outright and owned all direct rights. Dolly refused, and Col. Parker scratched the song off the list, much to Elvis' disappointment.
Now I know Dolly Parton probably doesn't know the in's and out's of the Elvis estate, but Dolly quite possibly the Elvis of women, and a legend who's been around for nearly half a century in the business.
I trust her take on business.
So when it comes to those musical covers - i'm guessing the opposite of you... I think Elvis' estate owns the rights outright. Obvious stuff like My Way and Welcome To My World and Runaway, stuff like that probably belongs to the estates of Sinatra, Jim Reeves & Del Shannon, as they were immensely popular songs before Elvis covered them.
But the above songs listed were popularized by Elvis. So i'm thinking he bought the song.
And you're right -- without the music, why waste the time of the viewer. I wouldn't even want to watch it. I watch all Elvis films for the music. I watch all musical biopic's - for the music.
