After Queen rocked the world with the digitally remastered version of Queen Rock Montreal earlier this year, the iconic 1981 live concert will be heading to Disney+ for streaming globally starting May 15.
Following the success of concert films and musical documentaries like Beyoncé’s Renaissance: A Film and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Queen Rock Montreal is the only Queen concert remastered for IMAX. The concert film will debut alongside various Marvel features with IMAX-enhanced sound, including Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Captain America: Civil War.
The historic concert, which presented Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon “at their most exciting and exhilarating,” took place two consecutive nights in November 1981. The two-night concerts were arranged in order to be filmed for a full-length concert film and document one of the band’s most iconic concerts.
The concert film also arrived six years after 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which starred Rami Malek as the band’s frontman, was released. The film chronicled the life of Mercury and the band’s ascent to fame.
Queen Rock Montreal brought the iconic 1981 concert back to the big screen
Queen Rock Montreal includes performances of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Under Pressure,” “Another One Bites the Dust,” “We Are The Champions,” “Somebody To Love,” “Killer Queen,” and the renowned stadium anthem “We Will Rock You.”
Queen made their debut in the 1970s and has since become one of the world’s most recognizable rock bands. The two-night Queen Rock Montreal concert, recorded at the Montreal Forum, got a Blu-ray and DVD release in 2007.
“I don’t think we quite realized it at the time, but this film has preserved one of the highest peaks in Queen’s touring life, on stage in the old glory days. The director [Saul Swimmer] was very much focused on Freddie, and this now stands as probably the most precious intimate capture ever of Mr. Mercury at his full awesome power,” May said in a press statement (via Forbes).
Restored for IMAX by Mercury Studios, the concert film’s executive producers include Geoff Kempin, Alice Webb, Jim Beach, and Matilda Beach.
