The chance for the public to see the long-awaited documentary “Becoming Led Zeppelin” is finally becoming a reality for fans of the classic rock band. The film has been acquired for release by Sony Classics Pictures, and will get a big-screen theatrical rollout, the company announced Wednesday.
The rights picked up by Sony Classics are for North America, Latin America, Southeast Asia (except for Japan), the Middle East and Benelux. Negotiations for the deal took place between Sony Classics, director Bernard MacMahon and Altitude Film Sales.
No time frame was given for the film’s release, but Zeppelin fans have waited for years, so a possible matter of months may come as good news at this point. A rough version of the film premiered at and was reviewed out of the Venice Film Festival in September 2021, before it seemed to slip into limbo, as far as the general public knew.
The film has been augmented with additional footage since the “work in progress” version screened in Venice. The announcement from Sony Classics says the “now completed” cut features “a brand-new sound mix (and) newly unearthed material from the archives of all four band members.”
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“We have spent years designing this film to be experienced on the big screen with the best possible sound,” McMahon said in a statement, alluding to the wait. Added producer/co-writer Allison McGourty, “Sony Pictures Classics are the perfect partners because they are true believers in the theatrical experience and are passionate about giving the millions of Led Zeppelin fans a chance to see and hear them on the greatest screens and sound systems in the world.”
Attentive fans knew that work on the film was indeed continuing, when a report surfaced recently that the filmmakers had acquired rights to use footage from a Bath Festival performance filmed in June 1970. The site LedZepNews reported in March that multiple sources said the Bath footage had been integrated into a new cut that was being privately screened. Notably, a crude version of some of that footage disappeared from YouTube around the time it was reportedly being snatched up by the film team, as did other clips it was believed the documentary was acquiring for the refreshed cut.
The project was first announced in 2019 after getting underway the year before. Now, as then, it is being touted as the only documentary ever made with the band members’ full participation. Indeed, as reviews from Venice /confirm/ied, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones are the only interview subjects in the film, with the late John Bonham also seen speaking via vintage clips. The documentary does not include the band’s entire career, but rather — per the title — focuses on the members’ early lives and the band’s formation, ending with the release of “Led Zeppelin II.”
Led Zeppelin has been a staple of the midnight movie circuit for nearly 50 years with the concert film “The Song Remains the Same.” Although “Becoming Led Zeppelin” was previously described in straight documentary terms, Sony Classics is touted its acquisition as a “hybrid docu-concert film,” and is promising performance footage from the Fillmore West, the Atlanta Pop Festival and the Texas Pop Festival, all from 1969. (The announcement makes no mention of the purported 1970 Bath Festival additions.)
Per Sony Classics, the film is written by MacMahon and producer Allison McGourty. The production company is Paradise Pictures in association with Big Beach, with a list of executive producers that includes Michael Clark, Alex Turtletaub, Duke Erikson, Cynthia Heusing, David Kistenbroker, Simon Moran and Ged Doherty. Dan Gitlin edited, Nick Bergh did the re-recording mix, and the film’s sound restoration is by Peter Henderson.
