“The King” is a documentary movie on Elvis Presley by Eugene Jarecki that really stars Presley’s 1963 Rolls-Royce. “The King,” already premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the prestigious Cannes Film Festival before being released commercially by film studio Oscilloscope on June 22, 2018.
The film re-traces Presley’s life from his birthplace of Tupelo, Mississippi to Memphis then Las Vegas and finally, Beverly Hills – but all with the assistance of his 1963 Rolls-Royce, bought by the film’s producers at an auction. The producers outfitted the car with cameras and took it across the U.S., putting a variety of celebrities in it along the way, to give their thoughts about Elvis.
While the 1963 Rolls is a classic, Jarecki says it was more akin to “a beautiful old royal grandmother who was constantly developing ailments” – breaking down about two dozen times over the course of the year but not where you might expect. “It would do brilliantly in the Rockies in deep snow, brilliantly in Death Valley, but it would overheat driving down Rodeo Drive.”
