Sixty-eight boxes of lost Elvis Presley footage, buried for decades in Warner Bros. salt mines in Kansas, have emerged to create something unprecedented. Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert transforms these 59 hours of silent film into what the director calls the fulfillment of Elvis’s “unrealized dream to tour around the world.”
The Archival Goldmine
Two years of painstaking restoration work have synchronized rare outtakes with newly discovered audio recordings.
The discovery reads like a music nerd’s fever dream. Among the treasures:
- Outtakes from Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour
- A 1957 Hawaii performance featuring the gold lamé jacket
- 8mm Graceland archive reels nobody knew existed
Most remarkably, Luhrmann’s team unearthed a 45-minute audio recording of Elvis’s candid personal reflections—intimate thoughts that were never meant for public consumption.
Restoring silent footage required detective work worthy of a true-crime documentary. Sound engineers spent over two years matching existing audio recordings to the visual material, creating seamless concert sequences that feel both authentic and impossibly crisp.
Festival Buzz Builds Anticipation
Early critical reception suggests this hybrid documentary delivers both spectacle and emotional depth.
EPiC premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025, earning the kind of standing ovations usually reserved for surprise Drake appearances. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 86% positive; Metacritic averages 88/100.
What sets this apart from typical concert documentaries? Luhrmann frames it as a “tone poem”—part musical spectacle, part intimate portrait. You’re not just watching Elvis perform; you’re experiencing his internal monologue about fame, artistry, and the weight of fame.
The “Oh Happy Day” sequence alone has festival audiences talking.
Theater Experience Ahead
The 2026 global theatrical release promises to deliver Elvis’s Vegas residency to cinema screens worldwide.
Neon and Universal are handling worldwide distribution for 2026, though specific dates remain under wraps. Luhrmann designed EPiC for both IMAX spectacle and intimate theater experiences—theaters large and small get the same treatment as premium venues.
For Elvis fans who’ve exhausted every bootleg and documentary, this represents genuinely new material. For everyone else, it’s a chance to understand why his Vegas years weren’t just sequined nostalgia but a masterclass in live performance that modern artists still study.
Tickets offer front-row access to history that was almost lost forever.
