Bruce in Cannes

Click the link below to watch a video of Bruce arriving in Cannes taken from BBC:

Bruce Arriving in Cannes

Metal god, actor, novelist, swordsman, pilot, DJ - and now screenwriter. IRON MAIDEN’s Bruce Dickinson is a man of many parts, and this weekend he showed up in Cannes to show off a new film called Chemical Wedding. Dickinson, a registered commercial airline pilot, flew himself to the south of France, along with a bunch of journalists, fans, and suitably attired hangers-on (they carried tote bags bearing the legend “Bruce Air Flight 666″).

There’s something very Iron Maiden about Wedding, dabbling as it does in the occult world of early-20th-century mystic Aleister Crowley, finding several excuses to liberate young women from their clothes, and incorporating dialogue that sounds as if it was lifted from the Number of the Beast’s lyric sheet. It would all be too ridiculous if Dickinson were not such a nice, unassuming chap - the 49-year-old product of a minor public school with a penchant for satanic imagery. When Dickinson sits down with Chemical Wedding director Julian Doyle (a veteran of Iron Maiden videos and Terry Gilliam’s editing room) the pair clearly get on like a house on fire. Dickinson says Chemical Wedding has been in the works for 15 years, having passed through a number of producers; in the end, he got the thing off the ground himself.

“I started getting into Aleister Crowley when I was 15,” he says. “He was the first rock star.” He adds that Chemical Wedding is “Withnail & I meets The Wicker Man”, which must have sounded good in those pitch meetings.

Without Dickinson, Chemical Wedding would have remained one of the submerged nine-tenths of gunk films clogging up the Cannes film market. Hampered by ropey performances, it never reaches the levels of weirdness and humour it is aiming at. But Dickinson, game as ever, can’t resist a final, harmless blasphemy: “We bring Crowley back for three days. Like Christ. Only better.” Get your devil-horn salute ready now.”

BRUCE DICKINSON ‘CHEMICAL WEDDING’ FILM LAUNCH @ CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - MAY 17

In addition to performing for two hours on stage with Iron Maiden and then donning his captain’s uniform and flying the band, a 50-man crew, 12 tons of equipment and stage set around the world (50,000 miles, 10 countries and 21 cities!) in Maiden’s own specially customised 757 Boeing named ‘Ed Force One’,  Bruce Dickinson has also moved into the world of film and has co-written the screenplay for the forthcoming supernatural thriller ‘Chemical Wedding ‘ which is to be released theatrically around the UK regions in the early summer.

The film is directed by Julian Doyle, who co-wrote the screen play with Bruce and who first stepped into the Iron Maiden world back in 1988 when he wrote and directed the intriguing promotional video for ‘Can I Play With Madness’.   ‘Chemical Wedding’ will be launched at Cannes Film Festival on May 17th when Bruce will fly Ed Force One full of VIP’s for a special viewing of the film.  The film stars Simon Callow as Professor Haddo a reincarnated Aleister Crowley who was once dubbed “the most evil man in Britain”.