The first Def Leppard authorized documentary, entitled Long Live Def Leppard, is set to arrive in cinemas in early 2027, with Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk division announcing the project alongside a production team drawn from several companies. The film traces the band from their origins in working-class Sheffield through to their rise as one of the defining forces in hard rock and heavy metal.
Jeff Feuerzeig, known for his 2005 film The Devil and Daniel Johnston, will direct, write and produce. According to Billboard, Feuerzeig produced the film alongside Alice Rhodes and Sam Bridger for VICE Studios, Nicholas Ferrall and Jeanne Elfant Festa of White Horse Pictures, Danny Gabai of The Searchers Documentary Films, and Brian T. Nugent of Sobey Road Entertainment. It is a production infrastructure befitting a band whose reach extends well beyond any single generation of rock listeners.
The Def Leppard Authorized Documentary in Feuerzeig’s Own Words
Feuerzeig has spoken openly about his long personal history with the band. ‘In the summer of ’81, after reading about Def Leppard in Creem, I saw the not-yet-famous band open for Ozzy Osbourne on his first Blizzard of Ozz tour at Asbury Park’s Convention Hall,’ he said. ‘These young lads from working-class Sheffield were punching far above their weight and playing for keeps. I was smitten, a fan for life.’
There is something in that framing worth sitting with. Feuerzeig is not approaching this as an outside observer reconstructing a mythology he inherited second-hand. He was in the room, a teenager watching a band that would go on to sell, as Variety reports, more than 110 million albums worldwide and earn induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That personal vantage point gives the project a texture that strictly archival documentary-making rarely achieves.
Feuerzeig was careful to set expectations about tone. ‘This is not your typical sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll tale,’ he said. ‘It has been an honour to collaborate with the guys and bring their unique, heartwarming, and often humorous underdog story to the screen. Long live Def Leppard, indeed.’
Five Members, New Interviews and a Story That Demands the Big Screen
According to Rolling Stone, Long Live Def Leppard will feature new interviews with all five of the band’s current long-standing members: singer Joe Elliott, guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, drummer Rick Allen, and bassist Rick Savage. The decision to bring all five voices into the film signals an authorised account rather than a retrospective assembled from whoever was willing to talk, a distinction that matters when a band’s internal history is as layered as Def Leppard’s.
Bleecker Street CEO Kent Sanderson framed the release in appropriately expansive terms. ‘Def Leppard is a once in a lifetime rock band, whose story and live performances demand to be seen and heard on the big screen,’ he said. ‘Longtime fans and those just being introduced to the group are going to be blown away by this high energy, compelling, and ultimately moving look into this legendary band.’
The Def Leppard authorized documentary arrives at a moment when the band’s catalogue is receiving renewed attention from several directions simultaneously. Earlier this week, a new collection was announced bringing together the band’s recorded output from 2015 to 2023. Def Leppard: Volume Four gathers 2015’s Def Leppard, 2022’s Diamond Star Halos, and 2023’s Drastic Symphonies, alongside five LPs of Joe Elliott-curated demos, live recordings, alternate mixes and collaborations.
The set will be available as an 11-LP box set on 180g vinyl, as well as a 6-CD edition, housed in a rigid slipcase with a hardback book featuring photography by Ross Halfin, new band interviews, and liner notes by Paul Elliott. Between the box set and a theatrical documentary in the works, the case for Def Leppard as a band whose catalogue rewards deep attention is being made on multiple fronts at once. Long Live Def Leppard is scheduled for cinemas in early 2027.
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