Caleb Deschanel will direct BiteSize Entertainment’s Elvis Presley biopic Growing Up Graceland.

Los Angeles-based BiteSize Entertainment founder and CEO Ron Bloom made the announcement. The project is based on Robert Boris’ screenplay adaptation from David E Stanley and David Gruder’s book Conversations With The King: Journals Of A Young Apprentice.

Gene Kirkwood and Ross Elliot of BiteSize’s production arm will produce alongside Presley’s step-brother David Stanley through his Impello Entertainment.

Principal photography is expected to begin later this year. The story focuses on the relationship between Presley as he returns from military service and meets his young step-brother for the first time.

Deschanel’s has earned five best cinematography Oscar credits including The Right Stuff, The Patriot and The Passion Of The Christ. His body of work includes Being There, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Jack Reacher.

Deschanel’s directorial debut was The Escape Artist in 1982 and he followed that up with Crusoe in 1989 and various TV episodes such as Twin Peaks, Law & Order: Trial By Jury and Bones.

BiteSize Entertainment is working with director Rob Cohen to develop a new action franchise based on the life of Isaac Newton, the genius physicist and master of the Royal Mint who lived in the 17th and 18th centuries.

BiteSize is also producing the comedy drama Mad Dogs And Englishmen, to star Colin Firth as Noel Coward when the writer spent two weeks at The Desert Inn in Las Vegas in 1955.

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