Director Baz Luhrmann, along with executive producer Jonathan Redmond stopped by THR's TIFF suite at the 1 Hotel in Toronto to talk about their new documentary 'EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.' Luhrmann explains the years long process to finish the film, including finding the footage and getting all the Elvis estates to agree.
00:00Do you guys still remember the day that you first met?
00:03Yes, very distinctly.
00:04Tell me about it.
00:05I was making Moulin Rouge, and in those days we were transferring from, like, film into digital editing.
00:13And I was working with a legendary editor.
00:15Jill Bilcott.
00:16Jill Bilcott.
00:17And Jill goes, oh yeah, a bit of a problem.
00:21We've lost the entire movie, all right?
00:23I'm like, okay, that's not good.
00:25And there was an Irish guy, very cool-looking, sleeping under the heavy works, the editing machine.
00:32She said, damn, he's going to fix it.
00:33He's going to get it all back, you know?
00:39When did we do the first reel?
00:41Now, you answer that.
00:42When did we do the first reel?
00:43Back in 2018.
00:45How many years?
00:45The first reel we did to kind of, it was seven years ago.
00:49Yeah.
00:49So we do the seven years, we did the reel seven years ago, like seven years ago.
00:55And at that time, I was contemplating, how am I going to do the Vegas showroom?
00:58And I'd heard about this maybe apocryphal story that there's maybe this never-before-seen footage of the Vegas showroom.
01:06But it's kind of like, it's very, you know, Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know, dusty shelves.
01:12So anyway, we have the 150,000, and they go in, they find, and they find it.
01:16And they find, how many hours?
01:1859 hours worth of footage.
01:19Yeah.
01:19Now we have this 59 hours of footage.
01:23And the other thing is that on my feeds and kind of, I get these, it's a bit like, release the files, release the files, you know?
01:30It's release the film, release the film.
01:32We know you have it, right?
01:34So it gets out there to the fans that we've actually found it, right?
01:37And I was lucky enough to convince both Sony Vision, and it's not Sony Pictures, and then authentic brands who actually control Elvis' likeness, and then Warner Brothers, who actually own the MGM footage, and RCA.
01:52So I have a relationship with all of them.
01:54So I was able to, because you have no idea, mind-bending it is, to get everyone to agree to put everything in the pot, you know?
02:02To give us, I'm not going to make it unless I've got access to all areas.
02:06And so, eventually, it's a yes.
02:10But that footage, we had, tell about how we actually, how long it took to actually get the footage up to scratch.
02:15It was 59 hours' worth of just bits of film, you know, there was no sound, nothing was sunk up.
02:22So we could see that Elvis was, you know, singing on stage, singing his heart out, but we had no idea what he was singing, and all the rest.
02:30So sinking 59 hours' worth of footage is a moment, you know, it's a huge task.
02:36So it took an assistant approximately about two years to sync up all that footage for the musical performances.
02:42It was pretty intense.
02:45You know, it took a long time to track down kind of all the missing bits and to kind of organize and choose the best performances.
02:54I mean, out of 59 hours' worth of footage, there's literally hundreds of different performances.
03:00And you kind of need to crash test each one to work out, well, what's the best, what's cuttable, what is the best coverage, and so forth.
03:08So that took a long time.
03:09What do you, like, how do you go from finally wrapping up, like, this has been a long, a really long chapter of Elvis, like, probably longer than you thought it was going to be when you started.
03:20Like, how do you possibly, like, creatively close the book on that and try to go into, like, your next movie?
03:27There's two differences.
03:27Jono was on it in a really profound way, and I can't overstate how this is a creative co-production.
03:35I mean, we worked really together on it, conceptually.
03:40It wasn't like I'd come in and describe it and Jono would cut it.
03:43I mean, he's the storyteller as much as I am in it.
03:46But Jono was there all the time, so I was able to develop my other works that I'm doing.
03:49But the time we spent on it, I've got to admit, was remarkably enjoyable.
03:57I would say over, I mean, hard work.
03:58We really worked hard.
04:00Mixing it, it was hard, but kind of something unusually majestic about it, really.
04:06No, it's been a really fun project.
04:08And to kind of answer your question, after seven years of being kind of immersed in all things Elvis,
04:13I don't know if we'll ever escape.
04:17I agree with you.
04:18I'm like this.
04:19We might want to, but I think from now, I mean, first of all, we've probably been involved in the primary.
04:26It's almost like we can't get him out of our life.
04:30I mean, he's just going to be that.
04:32You know, I don't see.
04:33The other thing I've got to say is, I mean, we couldn't do it.
04:36I hope the fans, because they're quite intense and I understand their passion.
04:40But we could not put everything in it, because it's very expensive.
04:44I mean, we have a whole concert.
04:46Is it, what's the part?
04:50Hampton Roads.
04:51Hampton Roads.
04:51The entire concert, never before seen.
04:54It's just a little bit.
04:55It's kind of the holy grail for, you know, the true Elvis fans is to see a full show from beginning to end.
05:03And we do have that.
05:05So to do that.
05:07So I think what will happen is, we will beget children.
05:11They will grow up.
05:13They'll have children.
05:14And their children's children will eventually do Hampton Roads.
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