After Baz Luhrmann already told the life of the King of Rock’n’Roll in 2022 with ‘Elvis’ in fast and brightly colored images in which Austin Butler performed the countless iconic songs of the music legend, Sofia Coppola’s indie biopic is now taking place. “Priscilla” afterward. In it, the director of ‘Lost In Translation’ sheds light on the love story of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu Presley by taking the perspective of the young woman who fell head over heels in love with the musician at the age of 14 in the late 1950s. and later fell apart due to lonely married life with him.
However, unlike ‘Elvis’, ‘Priscilla’ does not feature a song from the music icon. Instead, Coppola had a soundtrack of melancholic indie pop songs recorded for the film by the band Phoenix, to whom frontman Thomas Mars, the director, is married.
But why would the biopic do without the songs of the King of Rock’n’Roll, which would certainly have authentically underlined the romance between Elvis and Priscilla? The reason for this is simple at first glance, but it poses a very big problem: So Coppola did not get the rights to Elvis’ music.
“Priscilla” was originally intended to contain several Elvis songs
Coppola and her team even filed for the rights to some Elvis songs for ‘Priscilla’ and In fact, while I was working on the script, I expected to use one or two pieces of music in the film. The musician’s discography cycled back and forth between Coppola and Mars for six months. Songs like ‘Always On My Mind’, ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ or ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ topped the couple’s list.
However, the request was ultimately rejected by which manages the rights to Elvis’ estate, refused, as Coppola later said in an interview with revealed. The company is not enthusiastic about projects in which they are not involved from the ground up.
However, the reasons behind this may be more complex. Because until her death in January 2023, she was part of it largely Elvis’ daughter Lisa Marie Presley. In November 2023, it became known that the director, after seeing a first draft of the script for “Priscilla”, wrote private emails to Sofia Coppola and asked her to revise the script again, as she had described it to her father . ‘vindictive’ and ‘contemptuous’ interpreted.
So if she wasn’t happy with the portrayal of Elvis in Coppola’s script, it’s not unreasonable to assume that this is also a possible further reason for the rejection of the music usage rights – even if Coppola hasn’t officially confirmed this yet.
“Priscilla” with its own soundtrack – and new possibilities
Instead, this gave Coppola and Mars the opportunity to look elsewhere for the musical accompaniment to “Priscilla” and create their own soundtrack independent of Elvis’ legacy. You can now hear the Ramones cover of ‘Baby, I love you’ from 1980, as well as Dolly Parton’s megahit ‘I Will Always Love You’ – which the musician actually wrote in 1973 for none other than Elvis Presley and later published himself after a legal dispute with him.
As Thomas Mars in an interview with explained, the use of this song is an additional “feminist statement” that underlines the content of the film and its meaning. Furthermore, the self-penned songs of Mars’ band Phoenix for the soundtrack were based on Elvis’ musical work – such as the song “Aura Lee”, which is based on Elvis’ hit “Love Me Tender”.
If you want to see for yourself whether “Priscilla” works without the musical accompaniment of the King’s Songs, you have the chance to do so in German cinemas since January 4.