A new King has been crowned. After a competitive casting contest, 27-year-old actor Austin Butler has been cast as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's biopic on the singer.

Ansel Elgort, Harry Styles and Miles Teller all reportedly tested for the role ultimately won by Butler, who last year appeared in the Denzel Washington Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh.

Luhrmann says in a statement that through "a journey of extensive screen testing and music and performance workshops, I knew unequivocally that I had found someone who could embody the spirit of one of the world's most iconic musical figures."

Production is to begin early next year on the Luhrmann-directed film. Tom Hanks co-stars as Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker.

Butler, who has a role in Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die, has also been cast in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, set in 1960s Los Angeles and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.