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The late Lisa Marie Presley was horrified of how her father, Elvis Presley, was written in Sofia Coppola's Priscilla script, Variety exclusively reported.
The magazine obtained copies of the emails between Presley and Coppola. In them, Presley asked the writer and director to reconsider how she wrote Elvis. The email exchange occurred four months before she died in January.
Presley wrote that she found the script “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous.” She also begged the Academy Award-winning director not to cause additional strain between her and her mother Priscilla.
Priscilla, the biopic of the king of rock and roll's ex-wife, is set for a worldwide release on Friday, Nov. 3. The movie is based on Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me.
Lisa Marie Presley to Sofia Coppola: I don't understand why
Lisa Marie Presley continued to write, “My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father. I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don’t understand why?”
She also told Coppola, before production on the movie started, that she would speak out against the film and her mother who also served as an executive producer.
“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,” Presley said in the messages.
In the emails, Coppola replied, “I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently, and understand I’m taking great care in honoring your mother, while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity.”
A Priscilla insider said that the emails between Presley and Coppola occurred in September 2022. Presley allegedly saw an early draft before principal photography began in October 2022.
Priscilla and Elvis: A love story
The movie follows the love story of Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) and Elvis (Jacob Elordi) from their first meeting in Germany to their divorce.
The source added that the script toned down some elements of the book to avoid shocking contemporary audiences. The same source said Priscilla Presley, and Lisa Marie's daughter Riley Keough (Daisy Jones and the Six), were aware of the communications.
The emails also detailed Presley's preference of Baz Luhrman's 2022 film Elvis. She wrote that the film “made us all so proud because it was a true depiction of who he really was,” referencing her twin daughters.
She described Coppola's script as written from a “very dark and jaded reality.”
