first looks

Here’s the First Footage of Austin Butler Starring in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Biopic

Photo: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock

No need to be suspicious: The Elvis biopic starring Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s Austin Butler is still happening, and director Baz Luhrmann has released footage to prove it. “Made a little something to let you good people know we are taking care of business on June 24, 2022,” Luhrmann wrote on Twitter. He shared a 21-second clip that gives us our first look at Butler (who reportedly beat out Harry Styles, Miles Teller, and Ansel Elgort for the role) as the gyrating rocker. We catch a glimpse of Butler’s sharp side profile and slicked-back hair as someone walks up behind him. Perhaps it’s Tom Hanks, who is set to star as Elvis’s complicated manager, Colonel Tom Parker?

After two slow-motion shots of Butler walking in a black leather jacket and a white suit, the clip ends with a screen showing the initials TCB, which stand for “taking care of business.” TCB was Elvis’s motto, as well as the nickname he gave his band, starting in 1969. (A lightning bolt signified that said business was handled in a flash.) Given that Luhrmann also nodded to the TCB era with his caption, it seems like the biopic might be set close to 1969, the year Elvis resumed touring again. The preview footage is even set to an altered version of Elvis’s 1969 hit “Suspicious Minds.” Watch the clip below:

Here’s Our First Look at Austin Butler in the Elvis Biopic