Iron Maiden fans in India have a reason to smile this summer. PVR Pictures, the movie production and distribution arm of PVR Ltd in association with EMI Music India will be releasing the much awaited award-winning film based on the world-renowned British rock band – The Iron Maiden Film: Flight 666 in India on May 8, 2009.
Exhilarating, honest and often humourous, this full-length music documentary about the first leg of the band’s historic Somewhere Back In Time world tour in February and March 2008, is considered to be the most ambitious and adventurous tour in rock history. The Iron Maiden Film: Flight 666 puts Mumbai on the world map with the Mumbai concert being the opening shot of the film.
Circumnavigating the globe in just 45 days, the band flew in a specially customised Boeing 757 airliner, piloted by lead singer Bruce Dickinson, with the entire tour crew and 12 tons of music and stage equipment on board, to 23 sold out stadium and arena shows in Asia, Australia and North, Central and South America.
The band played in 13 countries, also landing in Azerbaijan and Papua New Guinea en route for fuel stops, travelling 70,000 km and performing to almost half a million fans — a schedule that was only made possible by having their own ‘magic carpet’ which enabled them to go where they wanted with all the key elements of band, crew and equipment on board one plane, christened Ed Force One.
Earlier this year, Flight 666 won the ‘24 Beats Per Second’ award for best music documentary at the SXSW Film & Music Festival in Austin, Texas. This follows the band’s recent win at the 2009 Brit Awards for Best British Live Act. Flight 666 gives a close up inside the scenes look at what happened on and off stage, when Maiden gave full access to a film crew for the first time ever, and contains some of the most spectacular live footage yet seen of Maiden.
