Cleopatra Entertainment has announced the theatrical release of Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer, the documentary film directed by Wes Orshoski. The film is opening in U.K. cinemas at Birmingham’s Mockingbird Cinema, followed by screenings in the U.K.’s Light Cinema chain. Its North American theatrical premiere for public audiences is set for June 9 at the Lumiere Music Hall Theater in Beverly Hills, California, at 7 p.m. — the same date as the North American digital VOD and DVD/Blu-ray release.
A question-and-answer session with Orshoski will immediately follow the Beverly Hills screening. In a new interview with Billboard, the director discussed the experience of filming Paul Di’Anno over the course of six years.
“I filmed with him on and off from 2017 to 2023,” Orshoski told Billboard. “Paul could be an absolute sweetheart, a lovely man, and he could be an absolute demon. I tried to show both sides in the film. I enjoyed being around the easy-joking, funny guy quite a lot. When he was in a great mood, he could be super fun and a blast. Zero ego. But when the Mr. Hyde side of him reared its head, it could be ugly for everyone within earshot. And he was sort of unapologetic about that nastiness. That said, several times I would see him blow up, and then I would notice that he would almost immediately feel awful about it.”
“You have to understand, I was filming him during some of the worst times in his life,” Orshoski continued. “I mean, imagine where your mental health would be if you were stuck in a wheelchair for almost a decade, and desperately trying to put your life back together, and you have a camera on you. I know I, for one, could not endure that.”
The director described a specific moment of conflict — and its aftermath: “After the film had dragged on for a few years, I remember filming him in his care center in Croatia, and on this particular day, we really got into it with the camera rolling, just yelling at each other. I watched it a few years later with a different sort of perspective and realized he was absolutely right about everything he was barking at me about. I called him up to apologize. He was in Mexico at the time, and he couldn’t have cared less. He was more interested in what sort of tacos he was going to order for lunch. So as much as he was rightly known as The Beast, there was a certain amount of grace there, too.”
On reaching out to Iron Maiden‘s camp, Orshoski said: “The very first thing I did after signing a contract with Cleopatra was call Iron Maiden management. Maiden manager Rod Smallwood was very kind, but immediately told me that neither he nor any of the current band members would be participating. Obviously, it was a massive bummer, but not unexpected. In the end, though, I’m very happy to say that Steve Harris and the rest of the guys do appear in the film.”
The film chronicles two Iron Maiden fans who encounter Di’Anno at a low point in his life and set out to restore his health and relaunch his career. Along with Harris, it features appearances from James Hetfield (Metallica), Gene Simmons (Kiss), and members of Exodus, Slayer, Megadeth, Overkill, and Sepultura. Metal Hammer described the film as “a harrowing insight into Di’Anno‘s frustration and frailty at a desperately low ebb with an abrasively real, warts-and-all approach to its subject.” At the same time, Metal Talk called it “a raw, dark and intimate documentary detailing the tragic final years of Iron Maiden‘s original singer.” Paul Di’Anno died in 2024.
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