Flick imagines what happened when Elvis met Nixon – Keaton builds McDonald’s empire in ‘Founder’ 1st trailer
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LOS ANGELES, April 22, (Agencies): At around 6:30 am on December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley delivered a hand-written note to a guard at the northwest gate of the White House requesting a meeting with president Richard Nixon. In the note scribbled on American Airlines stationary, Presley expressed concern for the state of the country and asked if he could help by becoming a Federal Agent at Large.
By 12:30 pm, he was in the Oval Office, telling Nixon about his Tennessee youth, how the Beatles were anti-American and his decade long study of Communist brainwashing and drug culture.
It’s one of the more surreal moments in modern American history, probably best known for the photos of the two that came out of the meeting. While there are firsthand accounts of how it all transpired and what was said, a new film “Elvis & Nixon,” out Friday, imagines what happened on that strange day in between the margins.
Directed by Liza Johnson, the film stars Michael Shannon as Presley and Kevin Spacey as Nixon. It largely takes place over the course of that day, as members of Presley’s and Nixon’s teams both try to make the gathering happen despite some trepidation from the White House.
In Deputy Assistant Dwight Chapin’s memo to White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman proposing the meeting, Haldeman even scrawled in the margin: “You must be kidding.”
The details were important to Johnson in bringing this world to life.
The suit that Shannon wears is cut from the same pattern as Presley’s was, and the car that his aid Jerry Schilling (Alex Pettyfer) drives is the same model Cadillac El Dorado, right down to the red leather interior. Beyond the set dressing, there were a number of too good to be true moments, like how Presley really did bring a commemorative Colt .45 as a present for the president.
But the script takes artistic license, too. According to the archives, photos were taken at the start of the meeting, for example. In the film, however, it’s played for drama and almost doesn’t happen.
“I wanted to be caught up in the facts in different ways than if I were making a documentary or a docudrama,” she said.
For Johnson and her actors, the fun was getting to the emotional truth of the encounter, rather than a beat by beat, court-transcript style reenactment. This freedom leads to some very funny moments as this superstar rocker and this buttoned up politician navigate their time together. Without spoiling too much, one power move involves some M&M’s.
“The script is very playful at imagining these things that can’t be archived. Did either of them feel an impulse of competition? There’s no archive of that. Did either of them feel flattered or like they wanted to flatter the other? There’s no archive of that. Did he feel like he wanted to do a show for him? We don’t know,” Johnson said. “The story tries to take those characters seriously and really think about what they both actually wanted out of the situation, but also acknowledge the kind of energy that comes from the absurdity of them being together.”
It even culminates in a big hug — Elvis initiated, Nixon accepted and all fantastically true.
Also:
LOS ANGELES: “McDonald’s can be the new American church, and it ain’t just open on Sundays,” Michael Keaton’s character says in the first trailer for “The Founder.”
The film follows milkshake-machine-salesman-turned-fast-food-empire-owner Ray Kroc, who made McDonald’s into a billion dollar chain and one of the most powerful brands in the world.
Kroc began working for Mac and Dick McDonald (John Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman) as a franchising agent in 1954. Impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making food in the Southern California burger operation, he saw franchise potential and bought the chain for $2.7 million in 1961.
The key to his success? “Persistence,” Kroc says in the trailer.
Directed by John Lee Hancock, the movie, likened to both David Fincher’s “The Social Network,” also stars Linda Cardellini, Laura Dern and B.J. Novak.
Robert D. Siegel wrote the screenplay, and Don Handfield, Karen Lunder, Jeremy Renner and Aaron Rydert produced he film, which is already generating awards buzz.
The Weinstein Company recently changed the pic’s release date from Nov. 25 to Aug 4.
“‘The Founder’ is brilliant and one of the most controversial films I have had the pleasure to be associated,” TWC chief Harvey Weinstein said when the new release date was annouced. “The story of Ray Kroc should ignite adult audiences this summer and send the incredible team of John Lee Hancock and Michael Keaton back to the Dolby Theater.”
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