The first trailer for the long-awaited Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary – which tells the story of the hard rock icons’ early years – has finally arrived, years after the film’s official premiere.
Becoming Led Zeppelin is one of the most anticipated guitar and music documentaries of recent years. The film, which will be the first-ever authorized Led Zep doc, was announced back in 2019, and received its first airing at the Venice International Film Festival in 2021.
However, it wasn’t until early 2023 when eager fans received an update, when it was reported by ledzepnews.com that the film was being re-named and re-edited.
Now, more than a year after that development – and over three years after the film was shown at Venice – Becoming Led Zeppelin (which has seemingly retained its original title) has finally received its first trailer.
It’s only just over a minute long, but there’s enough in there to further fan the hype flames, with archive footage of Led Zep on stage, modern-day interviews with the band’s surviving members, and never-before-heard audio of an interview with late drummer John Bonham all mixed together.
As the film’s name would suggest, Becoming Led Zeppelin charts the group’ early years, which – as the trailer makes clear – was far from plain sailing.
“Everyone said, ‘You’re mad. You’re completely crazy,’” says John Paul Jones. “We knew we were on the right track.” “I knew this was gonna be the way to go,” adds Jimmy Page. “I wanted it to be something that they hadn’t heard before.”
However, for all of the band’s confidence, the rest of the music world was slow to catch on to what they were doing. As John Bonham notes in an audio clip at the start of the trailer, “You could tell it was gonna be a good group, but people wouldn’t even book the band.”
Such obstacles, and how Led Zeppelin overcame them on their way to becoming one of the greatest rock bands of all time, will all be the focus of Becoming Led Zeppelin.
Directed by Bernard MacMahon, the documentary will be limited exclusively to IMAX theatres when it receives its general release on February 7. Two days prior, preview screenings will be held in 18 theaters across US and Canada. There’s been no official release date confirmation for elsewhere.
As the first authorized Led Zep documentary, with a never-before-heard audio interview with John Bonham, it’s set to become essential viewing for music fans.
“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,” says writer/producer Allison McGourty.
“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.”
Visit the Becoming Led Zeppelin website to find out more.
