Baz Luhrmann teases an Elvis musical stage show is "being worked on"
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is in IMAX cinemas from Friday 20th February
Last updated 18th Feb 2026
Baz Luhrmann joined Magic Radio's Dan Morrissey to talk about Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert - his new big-screen celebration - built from long-lost Elvis footage and audio, shaped into a cinematic concert where the King finally gets the world tour he never had.
Along the way, the pair also dive into Baz's views on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and why "there isn’t a frame of AI" in the archival film, his reflections on earlier films from Strictly Ballroom to Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, and his plans to bring some of that theatrical magic to the stage again with an in-the-works Elvis musical.
Baz Luhrmann's approach to AI in EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
Baz is relaxed but very clear-eyed about AI, telling Dan he isn’t scared of it, likening it to a useful device. "Oh, I’m not afraid of it, " Baz begins. "I work with it, I mean I've worked with it on (this film) but I'm exploring it, and it is in the end a tool," he says, before drawing a line between technical help and artistic soul.
"The thing about AI is... it’s perfect, whereas human beings are imperfect", he compares, arguing that while AI might make Elvis "move in a picture", it can never "bring the soul of Elvis because it’s his imperfections, it’s his chaos inside that makes him human."
For him, AI is best used to speed up laborious processes: "AI is a terrific tool for doing things that take time", he adds, comparing its arrival to the invention of the camera and pointing out that artists, like Picasso, find new ways to express "psychology and not your face."
Baz reflects on Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!
Reflecting on his journey from his early films to now, Baz thinks fondly of those times. On Strictly Ballroom, Baz recalls: "I devised it when I was at drama school. I was a ballroom dancer. My mother was a ballroom dance teacher", and describes ballroom dancing as "a kind of working class theatre" with "a theatrical magic to it".
He tells the story of the film’s rocky start, when a distributor said: "It’s the worst film I’ve ever seen" and "dumped" them, leaving him literally cutting his then-long hair off in a trailer park before a call from the Cannes Film Festival offered them a screening and changed everything. "We went, and we still have the record for the sales, and the rest is what it is!"
Looking back at Romeo + Juliet, he notes how long these films have lasted. "Romeo + Juliet turns 30 this year", Dan points out, and Baz replies that he made it so "it couldn’t be dated", saying: "I always make my films so that they have a life for the future". He laughs that he’s now "surrounded by anniversaries", mentioning "the 25th anniversary of Moulin Rouge!" and joking that at this stage people say: "Hey, I thought you were dead". Yet he’s clearly proud that "really young kids come up to me… and go, 'Oh, this is my favourite film'", and that Romeo + Juliet still "influences fashion and stuff like that".
Elvis Presley's connection to Whitney Houston
The pair also touch on Elvis’ surprising connection to Whitney Houston. Baz explains that: Whitney Houston's mum, Cissy Houston, was in the 60s R&B band Sweet Inspirations in the first year. When Whitney met Elvis when she was 10, before adding that she: "just stared, because he was so physically beautiful looking."
Baz uses this anecdote to illustrate the paradox at the heart of Elvis: a man who was "extremely shy, very insecure, very vulnerable, very empathetic, but looked like, you know, the statue of David" and who was always: "trying to make the least comfortable person in the room feel comfortable" by being "goofy and silly and doing silly jokes all the time."
What are Baz's plans for an Elvis stage musical?
Before wrapping up the conversation, the pair turn to theatre and the idea of bringing Elvis to the stage. After Dan asks whether there could be an Elvis musical, Baz reveals: "It is being worked on. It’s happening, yeah," even admitting: "I don’t know if I’m supposed to announce it, but hey, I just did."
He explains that, as with the stage version of Moulin Rouge!, he prefers to let others reinterpret his work: "We are, yes, we are actually… I’m not doing it because I have this thing I’ve learned," he says, adding that he "can never go backwards" to be the same filmmaker he was at 28. Instead, he enjoys "handing it on" and is "not precious", saying it feels "great to hand it on and let them interpret it for a different time in a different place."
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