Before the Cannes screening and the release (June 24 in the USA, two days before in France), you have to make do with a 3.5 minute trailer which is already creating a buzz.

We see above all the American Austin Butler who has the heavy task of embodying the "King" for 20 years, the bulk of the career of the interpreter of "Blue Suede Shoes", who died at age 42 in 1977.

The 30-year-old Californian has several assets.

Like sharing certain chubby and sensual traits with the early Elvis Presley.

Knowing how to sing too, since it is his voice that we hear, according to what has already filtered in the international press.

Not to mention a nice little career in show biz.

This actor, also a model, has been shooting since his adolescence in Disney series.

He is considered one of Hollywood's rising stars.

"The human in the icon"

He has also acted in a dozen films, including "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood" by Quentin Tarantino and "The Dead Don't Die" by Jim Jarmusch.

"It's his moment", as they say in the entertainment industry since his appearance at the recent Met Gala in New York, on the arm of model Kaia Gerber, was very noticed.

Denzel Washington, as a good fairy, has already considered this actor.

It was the interpreter of "Malcom X" who recommended this emerging talent to Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge"), as the latter told "Entertainment Weekly", American media.

The Elvis film crew surrounding Priscilla Presley, in a black dress, at the Met Gala in New York, May 2, 2022 ANGELA WEISS AFP

"I received this video of this young man in a torrent of tears playing + Unchained Melody + (sung by Elvis) and I was like + what is this? entrusts.

"And then I got a message from Denzel Washington, whom I didn't know. He said to me + I just worked with this guy on stage, I've never seen a work ethic like that +".

For "Elvis", Austin Butler sought to "find the human in the icon", as he told The AU Review, Australian media.

2h39

The project took three years of his life.

Because after being selected for the casting, he worked for a year, before filming, to set his voice with vocal coaches and experts.

Priscilla Presley, the widow of the "Heartbreak Hotel" singer, has spoken highly of the biopic on her social media.

Good or bad sign?

And the "King's" granddaughter, Riley Keough, who has just presented "War Pony" at Cannes, her first steps in directing, admitted that she cried "five minutes after the start of the film".

After that, "I didn't stop, so I have to see him again," she said on the Croisette.

Will the 2:39 film be exhaustive on the life of Elvis, an artist who has often come close to the dark side of the rock'n'roll circus?

Australian director Baz Luhrmann and his wife in Cannes, May 24, 2022 LOIC VENANCE AFP

In any case, Baz Luhrmann shoots another ace in the credits with Tom Hanks as Colonel Parker, Elvis' manager with an opaque career, according to rock biographers, a character too rarely exploited on screen.

The trailer suggests the film is being told from her point of view.

Jerry Lee Lewis, rock'n'roll pianist, competitor of Elvis at one time, also criticizes Parker in the documentary "Jerry Lee Lewis: trouble in mind" by Ethan Coen, also presented at Cannes.

On the competition program on Wednesday: "Les frères de Leïla" by Iranian Saeed Roustaee, revealed by "La loi de Tehran" and "Stars at noon" by Frenchwoman Claire Denis, one of the five directors in the running for the Palme d 'gold.

© 2022 AFP