Singer Elvis Presley is set to be brought back to life virtually as part of a new immersive concert experience.
Elvis Evolution will use AI and feature holographic projections of the star, created from thousands of his personal photos and home-video footage.
The show is set to open in London in November before moving to Las Vegas, Berlin and Tokyo.
It follows the success of Abba Voyage, a virtual concert with avatars of the Swedish pop band.
British immersive entertainment specialists Layered Reality have secured the global rights for Elvis Evolution. The company has previously produced immersive experiences including The Gunpowder Plot and The War of The Worlds.
The company said the Presley show will feature a “jaw-dropping concert experience” where a life-sized digital Elvis “will perform iconic moments in musical history on a UK stage for the first time”.
Layered Reality's founder and CEO Andrew McGuinness said the show would be “a next-generation tribute to the musical legend” and allow people to “step into the world of Elvis and walk in his shoes”.
The show will feature a life-sized digital Presley and make use of AI, holographic projection, augmented reality, live theatre and multi-sensory effects, Layered Reality said.
McGuinness added that the experience would offer the public a “deeper insight into Elvis's life, transporting fans back through the decades to experience his meteoric rise to fame, larger-than-life persona, and the cultural movement he catalysed in the 1950s and 1960s”.
The central London location for the show, which is yet to be confirmed, will also host an Elvis-themed bar and restaurant with live music.
Presley, who would have celebrated his 89th birthday on 8 January, rose to fame in the 1950s and is known for hits including Hound Dog and Suspicious Minds. He died in 1977 aged 42.
In 2018, he was posthumously awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honour a sitting president can bestow on a civilian.
A film about Presley's life, directed by Baz Luhrmann, was released in 2022. Actor Austin Butler later won a Bafta Film Award for his portrayal of the singer.
Another movie, Priscilla, released in the UK this week, examines the relationship between the singer and his ex-wife, Priscilla Presley.
Virtual concerts and events have risen in popularity since Abba launched Abba Voyage in London in May 2022.
The concert recreates a 1970s-era digital version of the singers who perform in their very own purpose-built 3,000-capacity arena in east London.
It was created by 1,000 visual effects artists and took one billion computing hours to animate the avatars. It makes an estimated £2m per week and, since 2022, has contributed £322.6m in turnover to the London economy.
In December, rock band Kiss ended their final farewell concert in New York with flying avatars who launched into the hit song God Gave Rock ‘n' Roll to You.
Gene Simmons credited the characters, which were created with the same technology used in Abba Voyage, with ensuring the band could now be “forever young and forever iconic”.
— CutC by bbc.com
