New Documentary on Late Iron Maiden Singer Paul Di’Anno Sets June Release

Cleopatra Entertainment has set a June 9 release for Di’Anno – Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer, a documentary on the late vocalist Paul Di’Anno directed by Wes Orchoski. The film will arrive on digital VOD, DVD, and Blu-Ray, with a theatrical screening and Q&A the same day at the Lumiere Music Hall Theater in Beverly Hills.

Orchoski, whose previous work includes Lemmy and The Damned’s Don’t You Wish You Were Dead, began filming during a period when Di’Anno was in serious decline. UK doctors had refused to clear him for necessary surgeries. Two fans tracked him down and eventually helped get him to Croatia, where local doctors and supporters stepped in. Orchoski told the press that witnessing that shift, from isolation to something resembling hope, shaped the film completely. He said he wanted to make a rock documentary that didn’t follow the usual template.

The documentary draws on voices from across heavy metal. Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris appears alongside Metallica’s James Hetfield, KISS bassist Gene Simmons, and members of Exodus, Slayer, Megadeth, Overkill, and Sepultura. Their presence signals how widely Di’Anno’s early work with the band still registers, four decades after those first two albums.

Di’Anno passed away last year following a long stretch of health problems. He met his replacement in Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, only months before his death. The band is now preparing a North American tour built around their first nine records, material that includes the debut and Killers, both cut with Di’Anno at the front.

The documentary has been screening in the UK since May 1 and will appear at the San Francisco Documentary Festival on June 3 following a stop at Sound Unseen Minneapolis. Ticket and pre-order details are available through Cleopatra Entertainment.