The New Gladiators (film)

The New Gladiators
Elvis Presley's The New Gladiators poster.
Directed by	Bob Hammer
Written by	Elvis Presley, Ed Parker
Produced by	Don Warrener, Isaac Florentine
Starring	Emil Farkas, Darnel Garcia, Roy Kurban, Ron Marchini and Benny Urquidez, and Ticky Donovan
Narrated by	Chuck Sullivan
Cinematography	Allen Daviau, John Hora
Edited by	Isaac Florentine, Don Warrener
Music by	David Crosby, Graham Nash
Distributed by	Rising Sun Productions
Release date	2002 (2002)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The New Gladiators is a documentary movie by Elvis Presley and Ed Parker centered on the fights of the United States Karate team in London, England and Brussels, Belgium.^[1] Narrated by Chuck Sullivan, it was filmed between 1973 and 1974 but finally remastered and later released in 2002. The movie was financed by American singer and actor Elvis Presley, who began to practice karate during his duty years in the United States Army.

In 1974, George Waite presented the idea of the film to Ed Parker, Presley's karate instructor. In the film, Presley was playing the main role, introducing Karate arts divided in narration and demonstrations. Parker presented the idea to Presley, who subsequently liked the idea.^[2] There was a meeting organized at Graceland, but no major details were arranged because Presley had to leave for travel to Las Vegas to perform on a show. The next morning Presley called Waite and sent his private plane to fly Waite and his wife to Vegas to complete the meeting. During the show, Presley extended a $50,000 check for beginning the production of the film. In 1977, after Presley's death, the movie was stored in a garage in West Hollywood inside the bed of a truck, along with other memorabilia objects. In 2001, the footage was found, restored, and later released on August 17, 2002. On August 16, 2009, Elvis Presley Enterprises released a new version of the film with extra footage of Presley in Karate training sessions.^[3]

• List of American films of 1974

• Official Web Site Archived 2018-11-03 at the Wayback Machine
• New Gladiators at IMDb