We all know John Carpenter was a great horror director and even that he made one of the best low budget science fiction films of the 70s in Dark Star, but how many remember or where even aware that he also directed a film biography of Elvis Presley that on its first screening became the most watched made-for-TV movie in television history. Made after Halloween and the TV movie thriller Someone is Watching Me (which also deserves a DVD release), the film has been infrequently screened in the intervening years and is now coming to UK DVD and Blu-ray for the first time, presented in its complete, unedited 168-minute version restored from the original film elements.

In a career-defining performance that many consider to be the finest movie portrayal of The King to date, Kurt Russell (who was nominated for the Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy for his role) stars in the title role in a movie that would mark the first of his now five collaborations with Carpenter (the two subsequently worked together on Escape From New York; The Thing; Big Trouble In Little China; Escape From LA).

Tracing Elvis' life from 1945 – when, as a ten-year-old boy living in Tupelo, Mississippi, he received his first guitar – to 1969 and his triumphant return to the stage at the International Hotel in Las Vegas (his first public shows in nearly ten years), Elvis lovingly and faithfully recreates the key moments in the King's life, from his meteoric rise to fame, his time in the army, his mother's untimely death and his fateful meeting with Priscilla Beaulieu to his ill-advised movie career, the birth of his daughter, Lisa Marie, and his incredible comeback.

Something of a family affair as movies go, Elvis (which was renamed Elvis the Movie for overseas cinema distribution) co-stars Kurt Russell's real-life father Bing Russell (The Magnificent Seven) as Elvis' father, Vernon Presley, and Russell's real-life wife, actress Season Hubley (who also worked with Carpenter on Escape From New York) as Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Rounding out the cast are Shelley Winters, Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon in the Batman movies) as Colonel Tom Parker, Ed Begley Jr as drummer DJ Fontana, Charles Cyphers (another Captenter regular from Hallowwen, The Fog, and Escape From New York) as Sam Phillips, Ellen Travolta as Marion Keisker, Joe Mantegna as "Memphis Mafia" member Joe Esposito and Melody Anderson as Elvis' high school sweetheart.

Elvis (cert. U) will be released on DVD (£15.99) and Blu-ray (£19.99) by Fremantle Home Entertainment on 16th August 2 010. Special Features include:

• Audio commentary by Ronnie McDowell (Elvis' singing voice) and Edie Hand (Elvis' cousin);
• Bringing A Legend To Life – the original 1979 'making of' featurette;
• Rare clips from American Bandstand – Elvis Day (4th July 1964);
• Photo gallery;
• Song selection;
• Scene selection.