Director Baz Luhrmann has said that Tom Hanks’ role in his upcoming Elvis biopic will show a new side of the beloved actor. Australian director Luhrmann, known for his distinctive extravagant visual style, will mark his follow up to 2013’s The Great Gatsby with a biopic of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Starring Austin Butler – best known for his role s Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood –as the King, the film was initially slated for a 2021 release before being pushed back to June 2022. The first Elvis trailer was released last year.

Alongside the up-and-coming Butler, Luhrmann has cast Hollywood stalwart Tom Hanks as Elvis’ enigmatic manager Colonel Tom Parker. Hanks has had a career spanning over 40 years. Starting off in romantic comedy and comedic roles, he has since become one of America's greatest leading men. An icon of the American film industry, often working with another film icon, Steven Spielberg, Hanks has proven himself to be one of the most beloved and versatile actors in Hollywood. The 65-year-old has two Best Actor Academy Awards, for back-to-back wins in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Hanks recently picked his three favorite of his own films - choices which demonstrate his acting range, through A League of Their Own, Cast Away, and Cloud Atlas.

Related: The Breakout Tom Hanks Role That Almost Went To Robert De Niro

Director Luhrmann recently spoke to CinemaBlend about Hanks’ performance in the upcoming Elvis biopic. Luhrmann said that he enjoyed working with “well known actors who are very well known for certain strings on their instruments” but finds a “thrill” in supporting actors to show that they “have so many more strings.” Calling Hanks the “Rolls Royce of actors,” he revealed that Hanks would “be playing a new string on his instrument” as Colonel Tom Parker. Read the full quote below:

“…When it comes to Colonel Tom Parker, I really enjoy - one of my great joys in life is working with well-known actors who are very well known for certain strings on their instrument. But I thrill at the idea of being useful, just supportive, in allowing - every actor always has so much more to give than you ever see from them. They always have so many more strings on their instrument than they get to play.

So one of the great thrills in working with Tom, who is the Rolls Royce of actors, I mean, you know, that is a ride you want to be on. But to be around him and let him - he'll be playing a new string on his instrument. And I think that's a thrilling thing to see.”

Tom Hanks Elvis Biopic Luhrmann

Known for playing both dramatic and comedic roles, Hanks is often cast in authoritative and mature roles suiting his “Rolls Royce” acting status. In 2019, he played American national treasure Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood. Two years earlier, Hanks played Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in Spielberg’s 2017 newspaper procedural The Post. Refusing to be hemmed into to a stereotype, however, Hanks continues to take on versatile roles, such as in 2021’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi Finch. In 2012, he took on one of his most adventurous roles: portraying six characters in the Wachowski’s sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas.

By the director's own report, however, Luhrmann seems to have drawn out another side of Hanks for his sixth feature film. Colonel Tom Parker, the talent manager who discovered Presley, lived an interesting life, gambling away his fortune and found by a judge to have managed Presley unethically. Though Hanks has played unethical, even villainous, characters before, the actor may have to bring something new to portray Elvis’ enigmatic manager. Yet, even if the performance itself provides nothing new, Hanks’ shocking bald-headed Elvis look for the role of Colonel Tom Parker is one not often seen by the actor. Luhrmann’s remarks, however, suggest Hanks may yet have more surprises up his sleeve.

Next: Every Upcoming Tom Hanks Movie

Source: CinemaBlend