Priscilla is a 2023 romantic drama film based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me. On September 12, 2022, it was announced director Sofia Coppola would direct an adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s memoir.
Now, the movie, starring Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley and Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley was released on October 27, 2023, in the United States in limited theaters.
Earlier, Presley expressed her strong preference for Sofia Coppola to be the one to adapt her memoir into a movie. She wouldn’t want anyone other than Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter to handle the project for a specific reason.
Priscilla Presley Reserves Memoir Rights Exclusively for Sofia Coppola
Priscilla Presley only wanted Sofia Coppola to adapt her memoir Elvis and Me into a movie. And her wish is finally fulfilled. Coppola directed the movie, and the ex-wife of the late American singer Elvis Presley produced it.
During a Q&A event at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas (via People magazine), Priscilla said: “I was very concerned about this movie. I think it’s right on, to be honest with you.”
Presley added that Coppola “was so wanting it to be right” and that she wouldn’t support any other filmmaker to adapt her 1985 autobiography. American businesswoman and actress said she loves Coppola’s filmmaking and thinks she does a great job. That’s why Presley let Coppola handle the project all by herself.
Priscilla Presley’s Daughter Had Concerns with Sofia Coppola’s Script
Priscilla Presley said (via People) that Sofia Copolla really connected with her and that she has had no problems “with what she did in any way.” Presley’s late daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, expressed concerns about how her father, Elvis Presley, was captured in the initial draft of the film’s script.
In the emails obtained by Variety, Lisa Marie wrote that the portrayal of Elvis in the script “comes across as a predator and manipulative” through a “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective.”
She noted that she was worried her mother doesn’t understand the “intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have,” adding, “I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother, and this film publicly.”
Later, Coppola reassured Lisa Marie that she was “taking great care in honoring” Priscilla’s life story “while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity.” Lisa Marie died of bowel obstruction in January 2023 before seeing the completed Priscilla.
