Four years or so after being brought into existence, the network AXS TV is taking a big step forward by putting together its first scripted TV movie, and the team being brought in for it is The Asylum, best known for crafting the outlandish Sharknado films. And this new project is just as baffling as a weather phenomenon involving killer sharks, as it will be a conspiracy-embracing flick that centers on a still-living Elvis Presley going through some thangs, including fighting some crime and protecting what’s his.
Elvis Lives!, which is arguably the only title for this project to possibly have, will try out the absurd premise that Elvis is very much still living and breathing, though he’s suffering from a drug addiction and a failing voice. He needs to get things on emotionally solid ground with himself, as well as his dead brother and the big man in the sky. But instead of finding existential peace, The King gets mixed up with the cops and helps to take out a big crime syndicate, which puts him and his family in danger. So then there’s nothing left to do but pack up his blue suede shoes and head down a path that will change things forever.
All I can picture is Rhinestone John Wick, and I cannot wait. I know it’s not going to be that great, but that’s only a bad thing in most situations. Elvis Lives! could buck that trend in the way that the Sharknado films do in their most unaware moments, and without a single animal hybrid in sight…yet.
Beyond The Asylum’s role as the production company behind Elvis Lives!, the other link to Sharknado is AXS TV exec and bazillionaire Mark Cuban, who played the U.S. President in the third film. Apparently that experience was so rewarding that he picked The Asylum specifically for the network’s first attempt at a feature, according to Deadline. He’s also perfectly down with this movie’s premise, and even has a challenge for viewers in describing the project.
A unique and original storyline that explores the well-known conspiracy theories and allows our viewers to form their own conclusions.
You need to draw your own conclusions about a movie that surmises Elvis Presley is still alive and got into some shit with dangerous criminals. DRAW THEM.
Now, there will obviously never be a better “Elvis is still alive” movie than Don Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep, as seen in the image above. But if Elvis Lives! could manage to rope Bruce Campbell in for a character reprisal, this one might have a shot at placing second.
No date is known for when Elvis Lives! will reach our eyes and love us tender, but you can damned sure watch Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens when it hits Syfy in July.
