How these teams bring the actors home without saying a word

Production design by Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy (“Moulin Rouge”)

Time frame: 1955 through 1973

Hero home: Graceland

Elvis Presley’s iconic headquarters in Memphis were replicated on the backlot of Village Roadshow Studios in Queensland, Australia, based on blueprints provided by the Graceland estate. Filmmakers reflected Presley’s aesthetic by changing the 1939 mansion’s original floorboards to red carpet throughout. “Graceland was very much the symbol and expression of Elvis’ success,” Martin says.

Workplace: The carnival

Elvis meets manager Colonel Tom Parker in 1955 at a carnival featuring country singer Hank Snow. Signage, tents, sideshows, concession stands, freak shows, the Hank Snow Show, food stands, wagons and carriages were all fabricated in New Zealand by the film’s art department, with only the Ferris wheel, carousel and swing chair brought in from vintage sources. “Colonel Parker used to be a carnival barker,” designer Murphy notes. Director “Baz Luhrmann wanted the carny world to provide an enticing location for Parker to cast his spell.”

Home away from home: The International Hotel in Las Vegas

A modernist skyscraper newly built in 1969, the International Hotel presented Presley as a Vegas workhorse whose glitzy revue featured a massive gold curtain. The fabric was dyed gold, imported to Australia and sewn together there.

Complication: Graceland and the other “Elvis” sets were wrapped in plastic for nearly a year due to the pandemic shutdown.

The Fabelmans relocate to the Santa Clara area around 1965 as the marriage falls apart during Sammy’s final year of high school. “California’s supposed to be the promised land, and yet for this family, it’s not,” says production designer Rick Carter.

(Merie Weismiller Wallace / Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)