• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, July 9, 2008

Is it ever too early to start making plans for Elvis Week? Not if you're Wal-Mart, which is already taking pre-orders for Elvis: Viva Las Vegas.

The new release, which promises "never before seen" material of Elvis Presley, will be sold only at Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs stores, beginning August 12. The $10 film is available in both DVD and hi-def Blu-ray, and will also be sold via Wal-Mart's Web sites.

CMT, which will air the film Monday, August 11, is marketing the premiere with an online sweepstakes at CMT.com, offering a shot at an all-expenses paid trip to Memphis during Elvis Week, including a tour of Graceland, and backstage access to the Elvis: Viva Las Vegas launch party.

Produced in cooperation with Elvis Presley Enterprises, the film is narrated by Elizabeth Vargas, and includes rarely seen Vegas performance footage, as well as interviews or performances with Beyonce, Tom Jones, Toby Keith, Paul McCartney, Celine Dion and 50 Cent.

Timed to coincide with Elvis Week, August 9 to 17, the release comes 31 years after the death of the King. And there's certainly a little less marketing hoopla this year, compared to the 2007 launch of Reese's Elvis Peanut Butter Banana Limited Edition, from Hershey's Chocolate, or the 30 1957 Black Electra-Glide FLH models Harley-Davidson sold for the occasion.

But the Elvis industry itself may be immortal. Elvis Presley Enterprises says the Elvis Expo 2008 will more include than 65 booths and 35,000 square feet of Elvis.

And at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, about half of the 300 to 400 people who tie the knot each month request some kind of Elvis involvement, a spokesperson says. The most popular package? The Pink Cadillac, in which the couple drives right into the chapel, where they are married by an Elvis impersonator-all for less than $800.

Presley died on August 16, 1977; today, he would be 72.