Def Leppard at the next major rock act to get the big screen treatment. The “Pour Some Sugar On Me” rockers will have their story told in the upcoming feature-length documentary Long Live Def Leppard, slated for release in theaters in early 2027.
According to a release announcing the film from Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk division, the first-ever authorized doc about the band from director Jeff Feuerzeig (The Devil and Daniel Jonston) is an all-access account of their rise from humble beginnings in working class Sheffield, England to global chart domination in the 1980s and 1990s with such hits as the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 smash “Love Bites,” as well as that year’s No. 2 hits “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Armageddon It” (No. 3) and “Hysteria” (No. 10).
The film was produced in collaboration with the Joe Elliott-led Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group that has sold 110 million albums worldwide; the group also features guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, bassist Rick Savage and drummer Rick Allen, who along with Elliott, will be featured in new interviews. It will feature never-before-seen footage, with writer/director/producer Feuerzeig saying in a statement that his connection to the band goes back to their rise to fame with 1981’s breakthrough sophomore album High ‘n’ Dry.
“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,” said Feuerzeig in a statement. “These young lads from working-class Sheffield were punching far above their weight and playing for keeps. I was smitten, a fan for life. It has been an honor to collaborate with the guys and bring their unique, heartwarming, and often humorous underdog story to the screen. This is not your typical sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll tale. Long live Def Leppard, indeed!”
A synopsis of the film describes its dramatic arc, including the dual tragedies that nearly derailed the group. “After exploding onto the global rock scene with their hit albums Pyromania and Hysteria, the band faced two devastating chapters: drummer Rick Allen’s life-altering [1984] accident, which cost him his arm, and the loss of guitarist Steve Clark [in 1991], whose anthemic and dynamic riffs earned him a permanent place among the guitar legends of all time,” it reads. “Those tragedies became defining moments in the band’s history, as Def Leppard rebuilt themselves and went on to become one of the most enduring forces in rock.”
The film was produced by Feuerzeig along with 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.
Def Leppard, who concluded a residency run at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in February, followed by a European tour this summer, will play the Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Fla. on Oct. 15 before moving on to a run of shows in Mexico and Central and South America later than month into November.
