Lisa Marie Presley talks about new Graceland exhibit, says she may make movie about Elvis

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This article was published 01/02/2012 (5356 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Over the years, Lisa Marie Presley has become dissatisfied with movies chronicling her father’s life, so she just might make a film about the rock ‘n’ roll icon.

The daughter of Elvis Presley said she has been in talks about a movie, though she didn’t offer a timetable.

“There’s not been anything done properly with him yet, you know, that has satisfied me in terms of capturing everything,” she told The Associated Press. “It will happen, though.”

Presley, who rarely gives interviews, was at Graceland this week to attend the opening of a new exhibit. “Elvis Through His Daughter’s Eyes” is a personal look at Lisa Marie and includes her baby shoes, her first record player and a small white fur coat — touchstones from her days living at Graceland, her father’s longtime Memphis home until his death Aug. 16, 1977.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of Elvis’ death, which is observed each August with a weeklong gathering of fans in Memphis. Officials anticipate as many as 75,000 people, the number that showed up in 2007 for the 30th anniversary.

Presley lived at Graceland until she was 5, which is when her mother Priscilla divorced Elvis and moved with Lisa Marie to California. She continued to visit Graceland, and she smiles when talking about the time spent with her dad, such as when they would ride a golf cart through the neighbourhood together. She recalled waiting for her father to make his daily entrance down the stairs.

“He was always fully, fully geared up. You’d never see him in his pyjamas coming down the steps, ever,” she said. “You’d never see him in anything but ‘ready to be seen’ attire.”

Elvis, a renowned car and motorcycle aficionado, also was known to leave the grounds and hang out with locals in the neighbourhood.

“Sometimes he would go and there would be a convoy and everybody would follow,” she said. “He’d be going down Elvis Presley Boulevard and you would see these devices riding down the road, of all sorts.”

Lisa Marie has spent much of the past few years taking care of her 3-year-old twin daughters she had with husband Michael Lockwood. She has two children from a previous marriage to musician Danny Keough, which ended in 1994. She also was married to actor Nicholas Cage and pop star Michael Jackson.

Presley did not want to talk at length about Jackson. The exhibit displays a photo of her and Jackson visiting a children’s hospital in Budapest, Hungary.

“It was just one of the moments that was captured … we were helping this child get a liver transplant,” she said.

When asked what comes to mind when she thinks of Jackson, she said: “I can only say that I have good memories.”

Lisa Marie has found time to make a new record, her third. Set for release in May, the album is being produced by Grammy-winner T-Bone Burnett.

Presley said she stays involved with the workings of Elvis Presley Enterprises, which licenses her father’s name and image in merchandising, music, television and film. Likenesses of Elvis have appeared in countless movies and TV shows, some without permission.

“There can be a sort of cheesy take on him, which I don’t always love sometimes — you know, the later years and that whole thing with his white jumpsuit,” she said. “Now I’m probably over it. But I mean it was kind of running wild for a while. It was a little bit cringe-worthy.”

For her movie, Presley envisions something like “Walk the Line,” the Johnny Cash biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix.

Presley, the heir to her father’s estate, said she is glad the business is back in the hands of a private company, Apollo Management Group. The private equity group purchased CKx Inc., which owns Elvis Presley Enterprises and the “American Idol” franchise, in May.

She likes the idea of updating exhibits and the Heartbreak Hotel at the Graceland tourist attraction across the street from the home. She also would like to see revitalization of the poverty-stricken neighbourhoods near Elvis Presley Boulevard.

“It makes me sad to see that, it does, because I remember when it wasn’t there,” she said. “I don’t like to see that anywhere I am, to be honest.”

Memphis officials have for years talked about improving some of the areas around Graceland, but nothing has been done. Graceland is one of Tennessee’s most visited tourist attractions.

As for the exhibit, Presley said one of her favourite items is the key used to operate the golf cart because it helps her recall when she was alone with her father, riding around the neighbourhood.

“That was my life,” she said. “I carried it everywhere. It was never far from me or not on my person when I was a child. I hadn’t seen it in 35 years.”