Rufus Sewell Joins Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Musical Drama as Vernon Presley

He joins a cast that includes Austin Butler, Tom Hanks and Maggie Gyllenhaal

Rufus Sewell Elvis
Photo credit: Getty Images

Rufus Sewell has joined the cast of Baz Luhrmann’s untitled musical drama on the life of Elvis Presley and will play the rock and roll legend’s father, Vernon Presley, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Sewell joins a cast that includes Austin Butler as Elvis, Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker, Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla Presley, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Elvis’ mother.

Production is expected to start this spring on the film that Luhrmann wrote with Craig Pearce. The untitled movie specifically follows Elvis’ relationship with his manager as a young performer and how he ultimately came from humble, dirt poor origins to change the face of music.

Luhrmann most recently worked on Netflix’s “The Get Down,” but this will be his first feature film since “The Great Gatsby” remake with Leonardo DiCaprio from 2013.

Sewell was most recently seen alongside Renee Zellweger in “Judy” where he played Sid Luft and with Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman in “The Father.” Sewell will next be seen as the lead in BBC1 and Amazon’s miniseries “The Pale Horse.” Sewell was also featured in Amazon’s second season of the award-winning “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The role in that garnered Sewell a 2019 Emmy Award nomination for guest actor in a comedy series.

He is repped by CAA and Julian Belfrage Associates.

The film hit theaters on Oct. 1, 2021.

Variety first reported the news.

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