May 7, 2005
The Man Who Would Be King
WS: CBS Miniseries On Rise Of Elvis Should Show Him As He Was
-
Play CBS Video Video Playing The King's Mom Emmy Award winner Camryn Manheim tells The Early Show about her role as Gladys Presley, The King's mother, in the CBS movie 'Elvis.'
-
-
Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrays Elvis Presley in the CBS miniseries 'Elvis." (AP)
-
Elvis Presley at the start of his career. (AP)
-
Elvis at Madison Square Garden 1972. (AP)
-
-
Interactive Burning Love Only 42 when he died on Aug. 16, 1977, Elvis lived a life long on groundbreaking musical achievements.
Todd Morgan agrees, saying, "A whitewash of Elvis would do almost as much a disservice to his legacy as a hatchet job." Neither the Estate nor the producers wanted that. "The estate did not want us to sugar-coat the details of Elvis's life," said Robert Greenblatt, one of the movie's four executive producers. Instead they wanted an "honest and accurate" account. "We think the movie is very balanced in showing the human side," Greenblatt continued, "as well as the side of Elvis that was somehow touched by a force that few people experience."
Greenblatt and David Janollari Six Feet Under), along with Howard Braunstein and Michael Jaffe (It Must Be Love), are the executive producers of the CBS miniseries. Bend It Like Beckham star Jonathan Rhys Meyers took on the tall order of filling Presley's blue suede shoes for the movie. Asked whether casting an Irishman for the part of one of America's most beloved Southerners was a concern, Greenblatt responded that the concern lasted only "until we heard him speak in Elvis's southern dialect."
Indeed, Rhys Meyers should be the least concern for the project. He nails the dialect and possesses an uncanny likeness to Presley. Rounding out the cast is Rose McGowan (Charmed) as the singer-actress and Presley intimate Ann-Margret; Randy Quaid, perhaps best known for his roles in the National Lampoon's Vacation series, as Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker; and Camryn Manheim (The Practice) and Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) as Presley's parents.
Elvis will cover Presley's life up to 1968, when he staged a historic comeback from a long string of B-movies. In doing so, the movie covers Presley's meteoric rise and ends "on a hopeful note." When William Shakespeare wrote of Hamlet: "He was a man, take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again," he could have easily been writing about Presley.
It is true. We will never see another Elvis Presley. The closest we will get is on May 8, whenElvis takes the stage. But will they get it right? Here's what we should see: We should see a shy kid, awkward with girls, and a cocky rebel who had all the girls. We should see a loose-bodied, slick-haired singer, a poor, working-class kid who made it big and changed the world. If we see him as the American original he is -- a folk hero, a country boy, a mamma's boy, a southerner, an entertainer, a musician, a revolutionary, a triumphant superstar and a defeated man -- than Elvis will surely hit its mark when the curtain rises.
Michael Potts is a staff assistant at The Weekly Standard.
CBS and CBSNews.com are owned by Viacom, Inc.
By Michael Potts
© Copyright 2005, News Corporations, Weekly Standard, All Rights Reserved.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
