Lisa Marie Presley read an early script for “Priscilla” months before dying and hated it

Reviews of “Priscilla” have been trickling in over the past few weeks, with critics expressing their varying opinions on Sofia Coppola’s take on “Elvis and Me” — the 1985 biography written by Priscilla Presley — but the harshest criticism yet has been from Elvis’ daughter.

In an exclusive from Variety posted on Thursday, they excerpt angry emails written by Lisa Marie to Coppola after reading an early draft of the script just months before her death in January. Calling it “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous,” she pleaded with the director to spare her family public embarrassment and blasted her mom for supporting the film, fearing it would further strain their already fragile relationship. 

“My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative,” she wrote in one of several messages. “As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father . . . I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly.”

Her mother — credited as an executive producer on the film — provided no comment to Variety on the subject of these emails and has had nothing but good things to say about the film and its director.