50th Anniversary Documentary Announcement

Nope, it's a movie like Flight 666, and first it will be released at cinemas.
The imdb page for the doc is now up btw:

www.imdb.com

Untitled Malcolm Venville's Iron Maiden Doc | Documentary, Biography, Music

Untitled Malcolm Venville's Iron Maiden Doc: Directed by Malcolm Venville. With Javier Bardem, Gene Simmons, Lars Ulrich. Iron Maiden's 50-year story told through band interviews, Di'Anno's last chat, celebrity insights, rare footage and Eddie animations. Features Bardem, Ulrich and Simmons.
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com
 
Mosh said:
There was a bit of hoopla over the omission of any Blaze versions of songs in the From Fear to Eternity compilation, although I continue to believe this was less an attempt to sweep the Blaze era under the rug and more as a way to create continuity between tracks as the From Fear and Somewhere Back in Time compilations seemed to be ways to promote Maiden's live shows (even if From Fear didn't get a proper tour). The SBIT comp also replaced any Di'Anno era songs with versions sung by Bruce. The band continues to reissue the Blaze albums, play songs from them live, and generally acknowledges their existence, so I would expect that to continue in a documentary.
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Agreed. And a short 1 year FFTE tour (instead of ME - or in 2014's 3rd leg, to say, after the heavy newer material sets in 2010/2011 and the fact that they celebrated concert videos) would have been better at the time, with more 90's songs and some Reunion classics (from the first 3 like in 2010). They did it for SBIT, it's the most popular era, but still. 2012/2013 could have been for SIT/SSOASS, TFP a proper SJ tour.
 
Mosh said:
It will be interesting to see what archival footage actually makes it into the doc, namely if anything that hasn't already been officially released shows up. From memory, I can recall some brief clips of live footage from the SIT tour in the Maiden England documentary, some Gimme Ed footage in the Dance of Death documentary, and some TFF 2010 footage in the TFF documentary. Otherwise most documentaries/material officially released by Maiden contains footage that has already been previously released. It would give some interesting insight into what the band is sitting on, especially if they include some professionally recorded Blaze era footage that we didn't know existed or something like that.
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True that. Now is a perfect time for that.
Mosh said:
I would love to be wrong about this but the reality is that the majority of this doc is going to be centered around the band's 80s period. I expect the post Brave New World segment to bring all the remaining albums under one umbrella and dovetail into the typical spiel about how Maiden has remained relevant through the 21st century and continues to appeal to younger generations etc etc. With that in mind, if Maiden does continue for another 5 years and makes one or two more albums, it's not like any future activity is going to require the career spanning documentary to be updated.
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Probably. And if we want a deep dive (all albums, all eras) documentary (official biography film/series of videos), it should be recorded by the band for their entire career (like at least 1 hour on each album) after their retire. Not a movie. One or two more albums - should also be in it.

I guess they will repeat most of the known/famous stories from before, it's inevitable, but BNW album will be touched (the most) from the Reunion era, for sure. Blaze and his era are a must to be included, even not that long! The Reunion era will be a bit longer than it, the most the 80's. For me the 90's era is as interesting as the Reunion era. Will the Reunion era material be shorter like the 90's, idk. They will also note SJ, maybe TBOS, I guess AMOLAD because it was played live in full and ofc the 2008 tour. So probably a bit longer.
TheRegularUnknown said:
Would be nice if they release a soundtrack album with the songs featuring in the doccumentary
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I don't see the point of that now, even with rare live performances. For example, some songs performances are definitive, we know them.
naranja said:
I hope blaze is in it
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Why not? Because that's the least popular era, but that's about their entire history, so. It would be so bad, surprising and disappointing. But they're celebrating 50 years with half of their albums...
Mosh said:
I will be curious about how they handle the Blaze era. There are some interesting implications to this documentary. If Blaze appears, it will be the first time Blaze has appeared in any Maiden related material since (I believe) the Essential Iron Maiden CD compilation back in 2005 or whenever that was. It'll be the first time Blaze is interviewed as part of a Maiden project since he was actually in the band (assuming he was interviewed). If live footage is used it will be the first time any live footage with Blaze has been released by the band since Visions of the Beast included a live version of Afraid to Shoot Strangers in 2003. It will be the first time the Blaze era is acknowledged in any capacity in a retrospective project (not counting times the band is asked about this period in interviews).
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It's about time for that, isn't it.
Mosh said:
Do we know if Blaze was interviewed? This is the wildcard for me. I can't imagine he will get much screen time but man I would really like more than a passing comment about this period. I would love to hear each member talk about those albums in retrospect and, of course, would love to see archival footage of the band from this time. At the same time, I will not be surprised if Blaze doesn't even appear in the doc.
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I want to believe that Blaze was interviewed. His era will probably be shown the least (maybe the whole 90's, they can't miss Bruce's departure though, mention of LAD '92), but he is still good friends with the band, Steve thanked him in the booklet and I guess he will want to say something about TXF album, which now is not viewed as a bad album. They should show footage from his era.
Mosh said:
I've long believed that we never got a History Of Part 4 because the band doesn't seem interested in reopening old wounds. If they go in depth into Bruce's departure from the band and Blaze's time in the band it will be the first time an official Maiden documentary actually digs into actual struggles they've had as a band. So far the most we have is Adrian implying he left the band over fast tempos in the History Part 3 doc.
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Well said. Or the just gave up on DVDs. But I don't think this upcoming movie should contain parts of their ''problems'' (and we know them), its purpose is different and it should be positive for a movie (not quite documentary).
 
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That would indeed be the decision to be made if you want to produce a documentary about a band:
Should it be a) a realistic description of the band's journey, which includes mistakes, controversies and bad times, or b) should it be a pure celebration of the band, which is portrayed as having gone from triumph to triumph.

Even as a band member, I wouldn't be so averse to option a), because the documentary would then be more gripping and more people might want to see it and besides, most fans aren't so naive anyway as to take a pure triumph story without failures and controversies at face value.
 
I think nearly everybody is very much aware of the issues in Maiden's history, so it's not like Maiden are hiding anything by not including them in this documentary. You can go back right to the start of Maiden's career with the firings of Dennis Stratton and Paul Di'Anno, the latter of which is gonna prove problematic given that he's since passed and this documentary will feature his final interview. So what, the film's gonna start with showing how difficult Paul was in the band and how he needed to be sacked, then end with his poignant final interview and an "in memory of" message? That's a weird shift in tone.

I think you can look to Bruce's and Rob Halford's (different band I know don't fucking @ me) books to get an idea of what this will be like. Those books didn't go into massive detail over the more difficult parts and were more of a celebration their lives and careers because at this late stage they don't want to be dredging up grudges from the past. On the other hand, you've got KK Downing's book, which did detail past issues and made him come across as salty and bitter. Personally, I know which book I'd rather read again.
 
Edington said:
I think nearly everybody is very much aware of the issues in Maiden's history, so it's not like Maiden are hiding anything by not including them in this documentary. You can go back right to the start of Maiden's career with the firings of Dennis Stratton and Paul Di'Anno, the latter of which is gonna prove problematic given that he's since passed and this documentary will feature his final interview. So what, the film's gonna start with showing how difficult Paul was in the band and how he needed to be sacked, then end with his poignant final interview and an "in memory of" message? That's a weird shift in tone.
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Why? This could be a wonderful story of reconciliation. And they wouldn't have to present it at the beginning in such a way that Paul Di'Anno was pure evil.
 
Looking forward to this documentary. I'm perhaps a little worried about how they’re going to manage to include all 50 years in this, especially considering how much has happened over that time. With so many significant events and changes, it’s going to be a challenge to fit it all in without missing key moments. I’m curious to see how they decide to highlight the most important milestones while keeping the narrative cohesive.

Just hoping that the local movie theater will be showing this one. If not, I’ll have to go to another city.
 
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