Elvis Presley’s life is about to hit the big screen once again in Sofia Coppola’s upcoming biopic Priscilla.
But this new take on the legendary singer’s life couldn’t be more different to Baz Luhrmann’s recent hit Elvis – and granddaughter Riley Keough is “not coping at all”.
Riley hasn’t attended any of the premieres or commented on the movie.
(Credit: Getty)Leaked emails reveal her late mother Lisa Marie Presley was unhappy about the movie, calling the script “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous” and revealing how she feared the retelling of her parents’ meeting when Elvis was 24 and Priscilla just 14.
In messages sent four months before her death, Lisa said she did not understand Sofia’s “need to attempt to take my father down on the heels of such an incredible film using the excuse that you are trying to tell my mother’s story, but from your very dark and jaded reality.”
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She added, “My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don’t read and see any of my father in this character”.
As revelations continue to come to light, it has been revealed that Priscilla had been working with Sofia in secret, supporting the movie.
In a second email, Lisa Marie revealed that she was most worried about her children, especially Harper, who she had been forced to tell, “there is going to be a movie about her grandfather that is going to try to make him look really, really bad but it’s not true.”
Jacob Elordi plays Elvis, while Cailee Spaeny is Priscilla.
(Credit: Getty)“I had to explain that her beloved grandmother is supporting it. These two little girls have been through so much in the past seven years, enduring my divorce and horrific custody battle and then losing their brother. We’ve all been drowning,”
Lisa Marie Presley wrote of her 14-year-old twins Harper and Finley, admitting that she was worried her mother Priscilla didn’t understand the nuances of how the movie would come across in 2023.
The shocking timing of it all couldn’t be worse for Riley, who has only just made peace with Priscilla after she contested Lisa Marie’s will.
“It’s not just its subject matter but that it comes so soon after her mum’s death,” tells an insider.
“It’s hard to imagine how Riley feels, having every lick and spit detail of her family constantly and so intensely analysed, reimagined and picked apart. And now even more upsetting is that her mother’s private thoughts have been broadcast to the world.
“She knows her family’s business is entertainment, but there are times when it cuts too close to the bone.”
Priscilla first met Elvis when she was 14 and he was 24.
(Credit: Getty)While Elvis focused on the King of Rock’n’Roll’s relationship with his manager, very little screen time was given to the rock star’s wife, Priscilla Presley.
Now, for the first time, all the sordid details of their complicated romance will be portrayed.
It’s not just Riley, 34, who’s dreading the movie’s release, with members of Elvis’ estate slamming the biopic, calling the writing “horrible” and adding that it looks like a “college movie”.
Based on Priscilla’s famous 1985 memoir, Elvis And Me, the film chronicles the iconic couple’s early romance, their 1967 marriage and their subsequent divorce.
Despite the estate not being happy, Priscilla has thrown her support behind it, even shedding a few tears at its Venice Film Festival premiere.
It comes amid Priscilla’s public battle with Riley over the control of her daughter Lisa Marie’s estate, following her death in January.
Priscilla, 78, filed a legal challenge to Lisa’s will – which gave control of the trust to Riley just two weeks after her death – and denies a feud.
Recently, the pair agreed on a settlement that saw Priscilla relinquish control of the trust to Riley in exchange for $2.2 million plus an undisclosed sum for 10 years.
Now that their legal battle is behind them, sources tell us that Riley would love for her
Grandmother to stop throwing support at every Elvis project.
“If Lisa Marie was still here, anything that could question Elvis’ legacy would never get approved without more control,” says the insider.
