How typically have you ever discovered your self questioning: what wouldn’t it be like if, as a substitute of being a boozy, misogynistic, devil-may-care narcissist, Sterling Archer had been the King of Rock and Roll? Nicely, even within the unlikely occasion that you simply’ve by no means entertained this evocative thought experiment, the reply is now at hand. Premiering Friday, March 17 on Netflix, Agent Elvis is an all-new, splendidly stylized grownup animated comedy through which Elvis Presley trades his jumpsuit for a jetpack after becoming a member of a secret spy program to cease villains from destroying the world.
Created by Priscilla Presley and John Eddie, and that includes the voices of Matthew McConaughey (as Elvis) and an embarrassingly wealthy roster of expertise that features Kaitlin Olson, Christina Hendricks, Kieran Culkin, Simon Pegg, Fred Armisen, Gary Cole, Priscilla Presley, Johnny Knoxville, Don Cheadle, and Tom Kenny, amongst many others, Agent Elvis imaginatively expands on the King’s personal dream – expressed to President Richard Nixon in an Oval Workplace assembly on Dec. 21, 1970 – to be a authorities agent within the conflict on medication. It’s extremely attainable that the creators utilized a level of poetic license of their extrapolation on this unusual historic second.
The primary grownup animated collection from Sony Photos Animation, the present is produced in partnership with Genuine Manufacturers Group and Titmouse, with Presley’s iconic look designed by Oscar nominee Robert Valley and Agent Elvis’ wardrobe designed by legendary designer John Varvatos.
A really, very advantageous – and “cool” – Season 1 has lastly arrived.
We spoke with co-creator Eddie and govt producer and showrunner Mike Arnold about their foray into the mythological wilds of Elvisdom, and the dangers, repercussions, and rewards that attended their iconographic enterprise.
However first, take a second to benefit from the trailer…
AWN: How did this mission come about and the way lengthy did it take you to develop? And at what level did Priscilla Presley turn out to be concerned?
John Eddie: It has been an excellent longer journey than you possibly can think about. I first pitched the thought to Priscilla in 2012. It is mainly impressed by the well-known picture of Elvis and Richard Nixon, and the concept Elvis wished to be a DEA agent and go undercover and struggle the evil forces of the counterculture. And so, it began from there, however we additionally had this concept that it could be like Forrest Gump, in that Elvis was one way or the other concerned in the whole lot that ever occurred in popular culture historical past. And the rationale I pitched it to her as an animated mission – this was earlier than the Baz Lurhmann movie, clearly – was that in each live-action model of the Elvis story, you possibly can by no means get previous the truth that the individual wasn’t Elvis. And I simply felt animation can be the way in which to seize that. The primary studio we pitched it to was Sony Animation, and so they received it proper from the start, and that is how the journey began.
Mike Arnold: Elvis is an iconic, singular individual in not simply rock and roll historical past, however actually in all historical past. He was one of many first globally well-known individuals ever. Pair that with a coked-out monkey with a shotgun, and it gave the impression of a variety of enjoyable. We got down to make a really cool present. “Cool” was the phrase that we all the time saved in thoughts as a result of we knew that was what Elvis would need and it additionally was devoted to who he was. We tried to maintain the dialogue grounded, however fast and enjoyable and intelligent. But it surely all turned on protecting Elvis the cool heart of all the world we have been constructing.
AWN: Particularly with the chimp character, who clearly is excessive in nearly each means attainable, it may very simply have gotten far too frenetic. However you maintained a sure, even tone, a minimum of with Elvis, all through.
MA: Yeah. There was a component of grounding that we wished to keep up, since you’re proper, a present like this may get actually wacky and fly off the rails actually quick. And we intentionally got down to keep in that grounded world and stroll by means of historical past and have enjoyable with it, and have our characters be loud and outrageous in their very own means. However on a regular basis, there’s that grounded aspect that we wished to keep up.
JE: The whole lot within the present has a foundation in actuality. Elvis actually did have a monkey named Scatter. And the monkey actually was a troublemaker that will elevate up ladies’ clothes on the events they’d throw. And so, we simply took that after which made him a coked-up ex-NASA chimp who can be a weapons skilled. We simply took the whole lot that had a germ of actuality and raised it to the nth diploma.
AWN: Elvis just isn’t solely one of the vital recognizable, but additionally one of the vital parodied, icons in historical past How did you retain him from changing into a parody of himself?
JE: From the start, we have been decided to maintain Elvis cool and grounded. We did not wish to go for the plain Elvis jokes. There are not any peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches. He does not get fats. Elvis is in on the truth that he’s this icon, and he desires to be the superhero. His day job is the King of Rock and Roll. However what he does in his spare time, for enjoyable, is struggle crime in our world.
MA: We have been capable of pull that off thanks, in an enormous means, to Matthew McConaughey. He has that voice, and he can deliver the arrogance that comes along with his voice; it helped us painting the Elvis that we’re describing – one who could be a international icon, but additionally be secretly preventing crime and be in on the joke. All of that comes with a specific amount of swagger that we thought Matthew simply completely had in droves. So, his model of Elvis and the way in which he introduced it to life actually helped us do what we have been attempting to do with him.
AWN: Inform me somewhat bit about the way you approached the design. Each aspect must be correct for the interval, however the look additionally has to have a humorous really feel to it, prefer it’s additionally in on the joke.
JE: Once we offered the present to Sony Animation, the primary character designs we received have been from [Oscar-nominated animator and designer] Rob Valley, and we did not look any additional. He has been such a touchstone for this entire present. We constructed the world round his character designs.
MA: Completely. It felt like these Valley designs have been the central guideposts and the whole lot grew from there. Rob’s sense of what this world would seem like was so good that we tried to deliver it to the whole lot – to the automobiles, the homes, the backgrounds. It actually gave us the general look of the present.
JE: After all, there are different designers on the present, however every time there was a significant cameo, we might all the time return to Rob to offer us his model of Marilyn Monroe or whoever. We wished to guarantee that that they had that Rob Valley look.
AWN: Titmouse did the animation for the present, so that you could not have been in higher palms. You understand their workforce of lunatics goes to make sure that each body is incredible. So, within the present, you have received freeze frames, you have received cut up frames, you have received frozen frames in the course of motion. It’s a really attention-grabbing type and all of it suits collectively so nicely. Inform me somewhat bit about what it was wish to work with Titmouse.
MA: Titmouse shocked us at each flip and introduced us such nice stuff. In these set items, we wished to be loyal to the time, to the period. And a variety of what you are describing has that nice late-60s, 70s really feel. And Titmouse simply does their factor, they’re wonderful. They might deliver us scenes carried out in ways in which we hadn’t envisioned on the time. And there was lots that we tried to discover a house for it in every episode, to guarantee that every episode had a selected visible type. There is a threat of set items changing into repetitive and feeling such as you’ve seen that. And Titmouse was nice at saying, “Okay, it is a new means we may do that set piece that we’ve not carried out but,” and attempting to maintain it ingenious and completely different from episode to episode.
JE: Early on in growth, [co-executive producer/co-director/co-writer] Fletcher Moules, who directed Entergalactic for Netflix, was very instrumental in establishing the principles of our universe and our world. One of many issues that we all the time talked about was desirous to seize the texture and the colour, and the graininess, of late-60s, early-70s cinema – like split-screen Sam Peckinpah violence, or Tarantino’s recreation of it in Grindhouse. In order that was essential.
AWN: In a present like this, there are all the time selections made with regard to the diploma and nature of violence and gore, and the way a lot to point out. Inform me somewhat bit about the way you arrived at your “maturity degree.”
MA: I believe we have been very cautious to guarantee that after we have been doing extra heightened moments of violence there was a story cause for it. We did not simply wish to be violent for the sake of being violent. And we picked and selected the place to do this. Within the pilot, there are definitely moments like that and, after we get to Episode 4, there’s a helicopter blade. After which later we’ve Scatter with a chainsaw. So, there are these moments whenever you say, “Okay, right here’s the place we do it.” And we appeared lots to Titmouse to assist us discover the enjoyable in these moments, however by no means simply to be violent for the sake of violence.
JE: Once we pitched the present to Sony, we stated it is animated Elvis preventing crime as if directed by Quentin Tarantino. As a result of we wished the intercourse, we wished the violence, we wished to seize that point interval, however in most Tarantino films, irrespective of how violent they get, there may be all the time a humorousness to it. It may be probably the most violent factor, however there’s a cause for it, as Mike was saying. That is what we tried to do in Agent Elvis.
AWN: Is Priscilla Presley happy with how this has all come collectively?
JE: I believe she is surprisingly happy with the way it’s come collectively, as a result of it is positively exterior of her wheelhouse. However she was very concerned from the very starting, and all through the entire mission. Bear in mind, she is an actress. She was within the Bare Gun films. So, she was very beneficiant to Mike and me, and the opposite writers, in letting us push the envelope and actually construct this fictional Elvis Presley world and this fictional Elvis Presley character. And I believe that was a really courageous factor to do. She is aware of there could be some older Elvis followers that will be like, “Oh, Elvis would have by no means stated that.” However she actually trusted the writers to maintain the spirit of it. And with Matthew McConaughey, and the remainder of the solid we’ve, it is simply come collectively so strongly that I believe she’s actually proud of the way in which it turned out.
AWN: All stated and carried out, what do you suppose the most important challenges have been for you on the present?
MA: Nicely, one of many challenges was we have been making this throughout COVID, so we needed to do the whole lot completely remotely. We needed to get our actors at their homes, and set them up with kits, and do recordings from their closets or wherever we may get the most effective sound. That was definitely one problem, however it additionally turned a part of the enjoyable for us to get to know one another with out ever actually being in the identical room.
The opposite problem was that we have been all the time conscious of there being a sure diploma of duty. We’re coping with Elvis, who was an actual individual, and Priscilla is an actual individual. So, sure, we’re making a fictional present about an Elvis that’s our motion model of Elvis, however we have been all the time attempting to be loyal, in a means, to his world and who he was and what he wished to do, and what he was about.
JE: We all the time stated there may very well be two variations of the present – the silly model and the cool model. And I’d say that was the most important problem: to do our greatest to ensure we made the cool model that labored for Elvis followers and in addition for individuals who aren’t essentially Elvis followers. We wished it to work as a narrative, we wished it to have a number of layers, we wished it to be a sensible present and never only a foolish present. We put a variety of effort into making it good.
Dan Sarto is Writer and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Community.
