Baz Luhrmann returns to the King this time, not with a biopic, but with live music and the great performer himself. The teaser trailer for “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” has arrived. The film is a concert film built around long-lost footage from Elvis Presley’s legendary Las Vegas residency, painstakingly restored and reconstructed for the big screen. Watch the teaser above and read more.
Lost reel found again
The teaser begins with the familiar overture, Richard Strauss’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” and Elvis waits in the wings, nervously tapping his foot and twisting a ring on his finger. “In 1969, Elvis returned to the stage to begin his legendary residency in Las Vegas. For 40 years, there were rumors of lost footage that was discovered…during the production of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.”
That rediscovery is at the heart of EPiC. The film draws on material from Presley’s 1970s Las Vegas days, interweaving rare 35mm and 16mm footage from Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (1970) and Elvis on Tour (1972) with intimate 8mm home movies from the Graceland archives. As a result, Elvis was captured in real time rather than remembered from afar, and was reborn rather than nostalgic.
Elvis isn’t as memorable as he is
Luhrmann said the project grew directly from detailed archival research conducted during the production of the 2022 film Elvis. Speaking to Deadline earlier this year, the director explained how long rumors persisted that material was lost after Presley’s exploits. “There was always talk among Elvis fans, both long-time fans and new fans brought in by our Elvis movie, about lost reels and unreleased concert footage,” Luhrmann said.
It turns out that the story has good basis. “During the production of Elvis, I had the opportunity early in the process to access the studio’s vault of old film negatives deep in the salt mines of Kansas. Elvis’s road concert film “Elvis on Tour” two years later.
Ultimately, it was not just the image, but what accompanied it that inspired Luhrmann to shape this material into its own unique character. “Equally exciting was the discovery of not only never-before-seen footage of this quality, but also valuable behind-the-scenes audio that we had feared would be lost, particularly some fascinating recordings of Elvis telling the story of his life in his own words.”
Rather than folding this material into a narrative framework, EPiC takes a different approach, setting it aside and letting Presley’s performance and his own voice take the lead. The teaser reflects that intent, moving from quiet pre-show tension to full-throttle spectacle before ending with a frenetic sweep of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
release date
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert will be released in Australian cinemas on February 19th. In the United States, the film will be released in IMAX on February 20th, before expanding to wider theaters on February 27th, 2026.
