Baz Luhrmann Hopes Long Lost Elvis Footage Helps Accomplish One of The Late Singer’s Biggest Dreams

Baz Luhrmann is hoping to make one of Elvis Presley’s biggest dreams come true many years after his death, thanks to his new documentary EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.

Ahead of filming his 2022 biopic on the late singer’s life starring Austin Butler, Luhrmann, 63, sent researchers to a literal salt mine in Kansas to uncover tapes of Elvis that were stored there to protect them from moisture damage.

Not only does his new documentary contain rare footage from the 1970s docs Elvis: That’s the Way it Is and Elvis on Tour that People reports were believed to have been lost to time, but it includes the man himself narrating portions of his life.

Luhrmann likened the discovery to a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

“Documentaries on Elvis tend to be people talking about Elvis, and we just said, ‘Let’s let Elvis tell his own life,'” he told People. “That was actually our guiding light.”

Apparently, some of the footage shows Elivs’ desire to step away from his longtime Las Vegas residency and perform overseas. However, his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, apparently couldn’t travel abroad, so Elvis stayed in the country. However, thanks to EPiC, Luhrmann hopes that dream can be posthumously realized in a way.

“I think it’s absolutely the world tour that he dreamed of but never had,” he told the outlet. “I’m thrilled that right as we are speaking, people in England are gathering to see EPiC, and I hope they scream and shout and clap.”