The film features unseen band performance footage
Early next year, fans can finally see the long-awaited Led Zeppelin film, Becoming Led Zeppelin. The film, directed by the award-winning, Emmy and BAFTA nominated Bernard MacMahon (American Epic), and written by MacMahon and BAFTA nominated producer Allison McGourty, opens in 200 IMAX theaters on February 7th with a one-night-only screening in 18 markets on February 5th.
Becoming Led Zeppelin explores the origins of this iconic group and their meteoric rise in just one year against all the odds. Powered by awe-inspiring, psychedelic, never-before-seen footage, performances and music, MacMahon’s experiential cinematic odyssey explores Led Zeppelin’s creative, musical, and personal origin story. The film is told in Led Zeppelin’s own words with new interviews with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones with archival interviews of the late John Bonham, who died in 1980. The movie is the first officially sanctioned film of the group.
The hybrid docu-concert film also unveils a huge amount of rare and unseen Led Zeppelin performance footage. The result is a visceral musical experience that will transport audiences into the concert halls of Led Zeppelin’s earliest tours, accompanied by intimate, exclusive commentary from the famously private band.
“The cinematic power of IMAX paired with the film’s authentic sound creates an immersive and transportive viewing experience letting audiences feel like they are there, in the venues with the band,” shares MacMahon.
Becoming Led Zeppelin is a movie that almost didn’t come to fruition – the filmmakers were up against epic challenges, including the fact that hardly any footage from the band’s early period existed. MacMahon and McGourty embarked on a global detective search for material to illustrate the band’s story.
“We spent five years flying back and forth across the Atlantic scouring attics and basements in pursuit of rare and unseen film footage, photographs and music recordings,” McGourty shares. “Then we transferred each piece of media with custom techniques so that in IMAX, these 55-year-old clips and music would look and sound like they came out of the lab yesterday.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with IMAX and Sony Pictures Classics to bring this film to big screens for all audiences, Zeppelin fans, of course, but also all music lovers and anyone looking for an inspiring, uplifting story with amazing music,” McGourty adds.
The film is produced by McGourty and Paradise Pictures in association with Big Beach, alongside executive producers Michael B Clark, Alex Turtletaub, Cynthia Heusing, David Kistenbroker, Duke Erikson, Simon Moran, and Ged Doherty. Editing is by Dan Gitlin, sound supervision is by Nick Bergh, and sound restoration is by Grammy Award winner Peter Henderson, with archival research from Kate Griffiths and Rich Remsberg.
