Elvis & Nixon: The Movie

Share this article

Australian actor Eric Bana (Hulk, Munich, Star Trek) is set to play Elvis in the feature film Elvis & Nixon, which will mark the feature directorial debut of Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride). Bana also will executive produce.

This will be the second movie outing which takes a look at the famous meeting between the King of music and tricky Dickie himself, Richard Nixon.

The first version 'Elvis Meets Nixon' in 1997 was a TV movie with Elvis played by Rick Peters and Nixon was played by Bob Gunton. The film was a spoof look at the events which took place during the build up to & the actual meeting of the King and the President. The film made Elvis out to be a joke and not paying too much attention to factual details.

It seems that this new movie will be a more serious look at the events surrounding this event. Danny Huston (30 Days of Nights) is in final negotiations to play President Richard M. Nixon in the movie, which centers on a Dec. 21, 1970, visit that Presley paid to Nixon at the White House.

The meeting was initiated by Presley, who wrote Nixon a six-page letter requesting a visit and suggesting that he be made a "Federal Agent-at-Large" in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Presley brought with him family photos and a Colt 45 pistol as a personal gift to the president.

Elwes was so fascinated by how the improbable meeting between the two historical figures came to pass that he chose the unlikely summit as the subject of his first film as a writer-director.

While the start date remains unclear, production will take place in Los Angeles and Shreveport and is being financed by Michael Benaroya's Benaroya Pictures.

Michael Benaroya (Margin Call) and Holly Wiersma (Bobby) will produce.

Australian actor Bana will exec produce through his production company Pick Up Truck Pictures (Love the Beast), which will mark the company's first U.S. production.

With 'Fame & Fortune', the film based on Sonny Wests book in it's early stages it looks as though there will be competition to get which movie out first and into theatres?

^{Source: Various - elvis-express.com / EpGold}