Elvis and Nixon

Michael Shannon might be the busiest actor of our time. In 2016 alone he starred in 10 films, including his Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice corpse cameo and two unreleased films from the Tribeca Film Festival. Shannon continued his collaboration with Jeff Nichols with Midnight Special and Loving, he played Elvis Presley opposite Kevin Spacey’s President Nixon, he played a hilarious Texas sheriff in Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals, and reunited with Werner Herzog for Salt and Fire. And after all that, he even found time to put together the best red carpet outfit of all time.

It sounds too absurd to be true: the King of Rock and Roll showing up at the White House asking President Nixon for his own federal agent badge. This is the stuff of fan-fiction or a goofy ‘SNL’ sketch, right? Nope, the proof is in the photograph. On December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue requesting a meeting with President Richard Nixon. We’ve seen the photo of the two posing together in the Oval Office, but what exactly happened in that meeting? The latest from Amazon Studios brings that story to the big screen in ‘Elvis & Nixon,’ and now we have our very first look.

Netflix made its first original film acquisition a few months ago with Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation, which will also mark the company’s first theatrical release. Following in their footsteps, Amazon has also stepped their game up, acquiring the distribution rights to the upcoming film Elvis and Nixon, starring Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey.

It's one of the most famous meetings in history, and it gave us one of the most iconic photographs of all time: the 1970 meeting of Elvis Presley and President Richard Nixon, the two posing as one hell of an unlikely pair. And now the story behind that photograph will be brought to the big screen, with Kevin Spacey portraying Nixon and Michael Shannon taking on the role of Elvis. Yes, Michael Shannon. Yes, Elvis. You are not dreaming. This is reality.