TIFF 2024: Elton John dazzles Toronto’s red carpet for new documentary

By Jenna Zucker

TORONTO (Reuters) – A bespectacled Elton John rolled down the purple carpet on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant in a purple golf cart adorned with stars, displaying a model of showmanship befitting the world premiere of the documentary “Elton John: By no means Too Late.”

Amplified by archival footage and images, the movie is an intimate take a look at the singer-songwriter’s life and profession by way of the lens of his Farewell Yellow Brick Highway tour, which culminated with a 2022 efficiency at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

The documentary’s co-directors – R.J. Cutler and David Furnish, a Toronto native and Elton’s husband – hope followers study one thing new a couple of celebrated megastar who has offered thousands and thousands of albums and packed arenas worldwide for the reason that Nineteen Seventies. Elton is one among a rarified group often known as EGOT winners, having taken dwelling an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award in his profession.

“It’s thrilling and terrifying,” Furnish advised Reuters on Friday on the premiere when requested what it was love to do a documentary about your partner. Furnish additionally served as producer of “Rocketman,” an Elton biopic launched in 2019.

A revealing second in “By no means Too Late” that shocked Furnish was a dialog from 1976 when Elton shared that he hoped to begin a household at some point.

“Within the early days of our relationship, he stated he by no means needed to have kids,” Furnish stated. “After which, in fact, we’ve kids, in order that was like a very nice shock.”

The British-born Sir Elton, who began life as Reginald Dwight, started his rise to stardom in 1967 when he answered an advert for Liberty Data and joined forces with lyricist Bernie Taupin.

The film, a co-production of Disney+ and Rocket Footage, has one thing for everybody, stated Cutler, whose directorial credit embrace 2021’s “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry” and “Belushi” in 2020.

“When you grew up together with his music as I did, you’re going to acknowledge this period, this exceptional five-year interval from 1970 to 1975, the place Elton launched 13 albums, seven of which went to primary on the charts,” Cutler stated.

“When you’ve come to Elton’s music lately, you’re going to find out about that interval in a approach that you just in all probability didn’t even think about.”

The documentary will seem on Disney+ later this 12 months.

Sir Elton, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for his contribution to music and charity, just lately introduced that he was recovering from a extreme eye an infection. On Friday, he declined to do purple carpet interviews, however his husband assured Reuters that he was on the highway to restoration.

(Reporting by Jenna Zucker in Toronto; Enhancing by Frank McGurty and Diane Craft)