In 1970, Richard Nixon was looking for an infusion of youth appeal that might endear him to a voting block that remembered him primarily as the non-JFK candidate who sweated up a storm on national television during the early Presidential debates. At this same time, iconic rock star and corrupter of our nation’s youth Elvis Presley was looking for a way to combat the scourge of drug use in America. A series of coincidences involving air travel, a rash resulting from eye-infection medication, and California Senator George Murphy conspired to bring the King into the Oval Office for one of the strangest sit-downs in the history of American politics.
This unlikely meeting will be immortalized on screen with the upcoming film Elvis & Nixon, the new trailer for which has been embedded above. The film, a production from Amazon Studios (though, to be clear, Elvis & Nixon will have a regular theatrical run and not debut directly to the streaming platform) recreates the bizarre conversations between the musician and the sitting President with Kevin Spacey as a grumpy Nixon and Michael Shannon supplanting Jack White as the reigning champion of hilarious Elvis performances. At this point in his career, Elvis was a weird dude; obsessed with firearms, ka-ra-tay, and his own declining health, he came to the White House in the hopes that Nixon would deputize him as a Federal Agent-At-Large, a position that he sort of assumed existed, but didn’t. Mostly, he just wanted a badge. But Nixon, recognizing a good photo op when it swiveled its denim-clad hips into his office, acquiesced and met with Elvis anyway. Their dynamic was, in a word, uncomfortable.
Director Liza Johnson honed her knack for this surreal oddball humor in her 2013 film Hateship, Loveship, but the true star here is Michael Shannon as wackjob Elvis. Bleecker Street, the other studio on the project, is in the process of pushing Bryan Cranston through the awards process for his performance in their film Trumbo. They’re sticking to the biopic beat (albeit with several dashes of added flavor), and here’s hoping they’re able to draw as many eyeballs to what appears to be a delightful turn from Shannon. Elvis & Nixon will premiere in April, though a specific date has yet to be named.
