Even though his life has been the subject of a few TV minseries, the tale of Elvis Presley has never been recounted in a worthy film biopic. But, according to The Hollywood Reporter, that's all about to change as celebrated documentarian John Scheinfeld has been hired to helm a movie about the life of the King of Rock 'n' Roll titled Fame & Fortune.
The movie will be based on the book Elvis: Still Taking Care Of Business, which was written by former Presley bodyguard Sonny West and biographer Marshall Terrill. The book covers the King's rise to stardom, along with his meetings with the Beatles and President Nixon; but it also delves into his self-destructive lifestyle and the events leading up to his death. Hopefully this movie will be more like Ray and Walk The Line, and less like Notorious and Beyond The Sea.
Scheinfeld has found success with musical documentaries like The U.S. vs John Lennon and Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Everybody Is Talking About Him?), but it'll be a tough task to accurately bring the life of the King to the big screen. And while the choice of director is important in this type of movie, no decision is more vital to the film's success than the choice of who will play Elvis himself. Seems like we'll have to wait a bit for that news.
Fame & Fortune will be released sometime in 2012, which will coincide with the 35th anniversary of Presley's death.
[Via The Hollywood Reporter]
An Elvis Presley Biopic Is Officially In The Works
By Jason Serafino | Sep 6, 2011 | 4:45 pm | Permalink
Jaime B Urrowz September 6th, 2011 at 07:16 PM
What is important here, in addition to a worthy screenplay, is that the person who plays him does not go over the top with the typical stuff one hears about Elvis. This includes his speaking voice, which changed according to the person who was doing the interview (LOL), or the way he threw lines (his thank you very much has been immitated, but the way most do it remind oneof how Peter Falk did it, when playing Columbo), his singing voice ( his mannerisms are the stuff of legend, but he rarely oversang), or stuff as easy to immitate as the way he walked, or looked ibtently at the person, or group of people, with whom he was having a conversation.
Brian September 8th, 2011 at 09:29 PM
Justin Scro wrote the first drafts of this screenplay. The folks at RFL Victor Productions are trying to cut him out unjustly, steal his work, and are failing to fulfill the terms of the original writer's contract. www.justinscro.com